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35^    3Mb 


Improvement   of 
the  City  of  Detroit 


Reports  made  by  Professor 
Frederick  Law  Olmsted,  Junior, 
and  Mr.  Charles  Mulford  Robinson 
to  the  Detroit  Board  of  Commerce 


Detroit  Board  of  Commerce 
1905 


Introduction 


Gentlemen:  The  Committee  on  Civic  Improvement 
respectfully  report  as  follows: 

Before  the  Committee  was  organized,  the  Board  of 
Commerce  had  secured  a  report  on  the  improvement  of  the 
City  of  Detroit  from  Mr.  Charles  Mulford  Robinson,  who 
is  well  known  in  connection  with  the  propaganda  for  civic 
improvement,  and  whose  writings  on  that  subject  have 
wide  circulation. 

At  the  request  of  your  Committee,  the  Directors  in- 
vited Frederick  L,aw  Olmsted,  Jr.,  professor  of  Landscape 
Architecture  at  Harvard  University,  to  spend  a  week  in 
Detroit,  and  make  a  report  on  the  various  improvement 
topics  under  discussion.  Professor  Olmsted  was  one  of  the 
Washington  Park  Commission,  and  by  President  Roosevelt 
has  been  retained  in  an  advisory  capacity  in  connection 
with  that  work,  besides  having  charge  of  the  landscape 
features  of  the  Capitol  grounds  and  the  National  Zoological 
Park.  His  firm  are  also  the  consulting  landscape  archi- 
tects of  the  Metropolitan  Park  System  of  Boston,  of  the 
Chicago  outer  park  system,  and  of  the  most  important 
park  work  in  this  country.  The  elder  Olmsted  made  the 
original  plans  for  Belle  Isle  Park,  and  many  of  his  sug- 
gestions are  still  available  among  his  papers.  Subsequent 
to  his  visit  to  Detroit,  Professor  Olmsted  was  called  upon 
to  make  a  report  on  the  improvement  of  the  Huron  River, 
with  special  reference  to  the  cities  of  Ypsilanti  and  Ann 


227769 


Arbor,  and  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  all  of  his 
work  in  this  portion  of  the  country  will  produce  tangible 
results. 

Both  Professor  Olmsted's  and  Mr.  Robinson's  reports 
are  submitted  herewith,  with  the  recommendation  that  they 
be  printed  for  the  use  of  the  members  of  the  Board  of 
Commerce. 

The  Committee  has  held  a  number  of  meetings.  From 
the  beginning  it  took  strong  ground  against  the  location 
of  the  new  Belle  Isle  Casino  on  the  site  of  the  present 
structure.  The  Commissioner  of  Parks  and  Boulevards, 
who  is  a  valuable  member  of  the  Committee,  was  heartily 
in  accord  with  his  fellow  members,  and  he  afforded  the 
Committee  every  opportunity  for  a  thorough  study  of  the 
entire  subject  of  the  casino.  The  Secretary  of  the  Park 
Commission,  (Mr.  Hurlbut,)  also  gave  advice  of  great  ben- 
efit. The  Municipal  Art  Commission,  rescinding  their 
previous  action,  came  to  the  support  of  the  position  of  your 
Committee;  and  as  a  result  there  is  now  a  unanimous  choice 
of  a  site  in  substantial  accord  with  the  views  expressed 
by  Professor  Olmsted  in  his  report. 

The  Committee  also  has  had  a  number  of  conferences 
with  the  architect  selected  to  prepare  plans  for  the  casino, 
(Mr.  Schilling,)  and  they  have  reached  an  agreement  as 
to  the  character  of  the  architecture,  and  the  general  objects 
to  be  sought  in  such  a  structure. 

On  the  subject  of  the  improvement  of  the  River  Front, 
the  Committee  have  conferred  with  Mayor  Codd,  who  has 
promised  that  the  City  Engineer  shall  make  soundings 
and  prepare  estimates  of  cost  in  accordance  with  the  sim- 
plest of  the  three  designs  submitted  by  Professor  Olmsted. 
Until  these  plans  and  estimates  are  prepared,  the  Com- 
mittee's work  in  this  direction  is  at  a  standstill. 

The  Committee,  at  the  request  of  the  Michigan  State 
Agricultural  Society,  took  an  interest  in  the  plan  of  the 
grounds  for  the  State  Fair  grounds,  the  location  and  char- 
acter of  the  buildings,  and  the  financial  arrangements  for 
the  erection  of  the  structures  built  this  year.  While  the 


time  within  which  the  work  must  be  completed  was  short, 
the  general  scheme  of  the  grounds  as  planned  was  adhered 
to ;  and  the  improvements  to  be  made  during  the  coming 
year  should  show  results  by  the  time  for  the  next  fair. 
The  buildings  constructed  are  simple  in  design  and  per- 
manent in  character;  and  each  is  located  in  accordance  with 
the  general  plan. 

In  submitting  this  report  of  progress,  your  Committee 
desires  to  express  the  hope  that  the  suggestions  presented 
by  Professor  Olmsted  and  Mr.  Robinson  will  be  read  and 
carefully  considered  by  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Com- 
merce, so  that  each  member  may  be  acquainted  both  with 
the  nature  of  the  problems  with  which  the  Committee  is 
called  upon  to  deal,  and  also  with  the  solutions  that  have 
been  proposed. 

Very  respectfully, 

Charles  Moore, 

Chairman. 


To  the  Board  of   Directors  of 
the  Detroit  Board  of  Commerce 


Improvement  of  the  City  of  Detroit 
Report  of  Frederick  Law  Olmsted,  Jr. 


GENTLEMEN:  —  Having  spent  a  week  in  Detroit 
at  the  request  of  the  Detroit  Board  of  Commerce 
Committee  on  the  Improvement  of  the  City  of 
Detroit,  examining  certain  municipal  problems  to 
which  the  Committee  directed  my  attention,  I  beg 
to  submit  the  following  report: 

I  understand  that  an  opinion  is  desired  from  me 
as  to  what  action  may  best  be  urged  upon  the  City 
by  the  Board  of  Commerce  in  respect  to  the 
following  matters : 

1.  The  Improvement  of  the  River  Margin. 

2.  The  further  Improvement    of   Belle   Isle,   with 
particular  regard  to  the  need   for  a   new   and 
better  Casino  Building. 

3.  The  Completion  and  Improvement  of  the 
Boulevard. 

4.  The  Improvement  of  the  heart  of   the   City  — 
Cadillac  Square  and  its  vicinity. 

7 


I. 

Improvement  of  the  River  Margin 

A.  The  Central  Section— the  Front 

The  river  margin  of  Detroit  is  divided  by  con- 
ditions of  use  and  location  into  several  distinct  sections, 
one  of  the  most  important  of  which  is  the  central  one 
lying  between  the  railroad  frontages  which  border  the 
river  east  of  Brush  Street  and  west  of  Third  Street.  This 
section,  pre-eminently  THE  FRONT  OF  THE  CITY 
on  the  river,  is  mainly  appropriated,  not  only  by  present 
use  but  by  the  logic  of  its  situation,  to  passenger  and 
local  freight  business.  On  account  of  its  central  location, 
opposite  the  heart  of  the  city  where  all  the  main  streets 
and  car  lines  converge,  where  the  financial  and  office  dis- 
trict is  permanently  centered,  and  whence  the  principal 
retail  districts  are  bound  to  radiate,  no  matter  in  which 
direction  they  chiefly  grow,  this  half  mile  has  permanent 
exclusive  advantages  for  transhipping  all  the  steamboat 
passengers  between  Detroit  and  every  point  on  the  vast 
river  and  lake  system  which  Detroit  commands.  The 
freight  of  such  a  locality,  though  large  and  certain  to 
grow,  is  not  likely,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  experience  of 
seaboard  cities,  to  include  a  great  volume  of  heavy  staples 
or  manufacturing  freight,  but  rather  a  miscellaneous  class 
of  individually  small  shipments  for  local  distribution. 

As  the  city's  inevitable  and  rapid  growth  continues, 
and  as  time  and  enterprise  develop  the  enormous  possi- 
bilities of  the  summer  resort  business  of  the  Great  Lakes, 
it  will  become  necessary  to  carry  on  upon  this  limited 
frontage  a  volume  of  business  in  comparison  with  which 


the  present  lively  traffic  is  a  mere  trifle.  Through  the 
casual,  haphazard  development  of  the  front  by  private 
initiative,  facilities  have  been  provided  which  meet  pres- 
ent traffic  requirements  tolerably  well,  but  in  the  future 
it  will  be  necessary  to  utilize  every  foot  of  this  space  to 
its  maximum  capacity,  a  condition  which  cannot  be  met 
except  by  intelligent  co-operation  between  all  the  inter- 
ested parties.  These  parties  obviously  are  the  steam- 
boat concerns ;  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  who  ship 
and  receive  freight  by  the  vesesls;  the  passengers  who 
come  and  go  by  ferry,  excursion  and  long-distance 
steamer;  the  transportation  concerns  which  take  care  of 
the  freight  and  passengers  on  the  land  side ;  and  finally 
the  city  at  large,  which  is  dependent  for  its  full  prosperity 
upon  the  economy,  speed,  convenience  and  general  satis- 
faction with  which  this  business  is  handled. 

On  account  of  the  vital  interest  of  the  city  in  provid- 
ing for  the  upbuilding  of  this  traffic  along  the  most  satis- 
factory lines,  and  because  of  certain  important  incidental 
benefits  which  the  city  might  derive  from  the  proper  de- 
velopment of  the  water  front,  if  in  planning  it  account  is 
taken  of  all  public  interests  instead  of  only  those  which 
would  bring  direct  profit  to  the  transportation  com- 
panies, it  is  highly  desirable  that  the  city  should  take  the 
initiative  in  bringing  the  various  interests  into  co- 
operation. 

I  would  suggest  that  a  strong  commission  be  ap- 
pointed to  consult  with  all  the  interested  parties  and  to 
learn  by  patient  inquiry  and  study  what  their  needs  are 
likely  to  be — not  only  in  the  immediate  future,  with  which 
alone  the  dividend-seeking  companies  are  now  concerned, 
but  in  the  more  distant  future  to  which  the  city  as  a 
whole  must  look.  Such  a  commission  must  have  author- 
ity and  means  to  employ  surveyors  to  ascertain  the  facts 
as  to  existing  structures,  boundary  lines,  character  of 


foundations,  etc. ;  conveyancers  to  ascertain  the  facts  as 
to  land  ownerships,  leases,  and  the  often  complicated  en- 
tanglements of  private,  municipal,  state  and  national 
rights  and  powers  which  occur  upon  such  a  literal;  and 
such  other  competent  experts  as  may  be  needed  to  reach 
a  thorough  understanding  of  the  problem.  They  would 
then  be  in  a  position  to  direct  the  preparation  of  plans 
and  estimates  of  cost,  to  devise  an  equitable  method  of 
distributing  that  cost,  and  propose  to  the  City  Council 
and  Legislature  a  suitable  method  of  carrying  out  the 
plans  and  meeting  such  portion  of  the  cost  as  may  equi- 
tably fall  upon  the  city. 

The  following  project  of  a  possible  treatment  of  The 
River  Front  is  put  forward,  not  at  all  as  a  solution  of  the 
problem,  because  I  have  only  the  most  superficial  ac- 
quaintance with  the  facts,  but  as  a  suggestion  of  the  sort 
of  way  in  which  the  problem  should  be  approached; 
namely,  with  a  single  eye  to  meeting  in  the  best  possible 
manner — that  is  to  say,  in  the  way  most  permanently 
profitable  to  the  community — the  requirements  of  the 
various  parties  which  have  an  interest  in  the  use  of  the 
River  Front. 

Experience  everywhere  seems  to  show  that  the  best 
way  of  handling  such  freight  is  upon  a  broad,  covered 
wharf  or  quay,  connecting  on  the  water  side  with  the 
main  deck  of  the  steamers  and  on  the  land  side  with  the 
level  of  the  streets  used  for  teaming. 

If  adequate  space  can  be  provided  either  by  getting 
control  of  adjacent  property  on  the  land  side  or  by  build- 
ing out  into  the  stream,  it  is  possible  that  it  would  be  an 
advantage  to  introduce  on  the  same  level  a  set  of  tracks 
equipped  with  electric  flat  cars  for  local  transfers  of 
freight  from  point  to  point  along  the  quay  and  between 
the  vessels  and  the  adjacent  warehouses.  If  these  tracks 
should  extend  to  the  railroad  yards  further  along  the  river 


/WAREHOUSES  ETC,. 


CONTINUOUS  OPEN 
PROMENADE,. 


I T 

FREIGHT     &  PAS&EN6 


SECTION  SHOWING  TYPE  OF  CONSTRUCTION 
ADAPTED  To  IMMEDIATE:  REQUIREMENTS  OF 
RIVER  FRONT 
No.] 

bank,  these  electric  flat  cars  would  also  serve  to  transfer 
the  ordinary  railroad  freight  cars  back  and  forth  for  hand- 
ling material  that  might  be  coming  or  going  by  railroad, 
either  between  the  railroad  and  the  steamers  or  between 
the  railroad  and  warehouses  back  of  the  quay.  Such 
tracks  at  grade  should  not,  of  course,  be  used  for  trans- 
ferring any  considerable  amount  of  through  freight  be- 
tween the  two  railroads,  and  if  that  necessity  should 
arise  a  separate  provision  ought  to  be  made  for  it,  but  for 
local  business  the  direct  communication  of  such  tracks  at 
grade  with  quay  and  street  and  warehouse  basement 
would  seem  highly  valuable. 

On  the  other  hand,  to  mix  up  the  passenger  business, 
with  all  the  hurly-burly  of  freight  sheds,  any  more  than 
can  be  avoided  is  extremely  inconvenient  and  undesir- 
able. Even  the  streets  approaching  the  Front,  passing 
through  a  wholesale  warehouse  district  and  crowded  as 
they  will  be  with  heavy  teams  and  rough  teamsters,  are 
sure  to  be  an  inconvenient  and  disagreeable  means  of 
approach  for  passengers,  as  such  streets  are  in  every  city 


in  the  country.  The  device  already  employed  by  some 
of  the  steamboat  companies  of  building  pavilions  for  the 
use  of  passengers  on  the  roofs  of  their  freight  sheds,  is  an 
admirable  one,  and  it  would  seem  as  though  it  might  be 
developed  by  giving  means  of  approach  for  passengers  at 
this  level  and  providing  as  far  as  possible  for  the  waiting 
rooms,  ticket  offices,  etc.,  on  this  upper  level,  and  for 
landing  the  passengers  here  from  the  upper  deck  in  case 
of  all  steamers  which  can  be  adapted  to  the  arrangement, 
so  as  to  care  for  the  passengers  independently  of  the 
freight  business. 

Probably,  for  the  immediate  future  at  least,  it  may 
be  best  to  confine  all  the  steamboat  business  (passengers 
and  freight  alike)  to  the  main  wharf  level,  and  simply 
provide  a  continuous  open  public  promenade  on  the 
upper  deck,  which  would  be  reached  by  steps  from  the 
various  streets,  would  connect  all  the  different  boat  lines 
in  a  convenient  manner,  and  would  afford  at  the  same 
time  a  most  valuable  public  recreation  place.  This  ap- 
pears to  be  the  present  opinion  of  those  steamboat  men 
with  whom  I  have  had  the  opportunity  to  talk. 

Looking,  however,  to  the  more  distant  future,  it 
seems  to  be  worth  considering  whether  provision  should 
not  be  made  at  some  time  for  bringing  a  loop  line  of 
electric  cars  along  the  front  to  receive  and  deliver  pas- 
sengers from  all  over  the  city  directly  at  the  landing 
place  of  every  steamer,  without  having  to  walk  even  the 
three  blocks  from  Jefferson  Avenue  through  streets 
which  are  bound  to  be  far  more  congested  with  heavy 
freight  traffic  in  the  future  than  they  have  been  in  the 
past.  Such  a  line  of  tracks — at  the  level  of  the  second 
deck,  but  far  enough  from  the  front  of  the  quay  to  leave 
ample  space  for  passenger  waiting  rooms,  ticket  offices, 
refreshment  stands  and  perhaps  a  covered  promenade — 
need  not  endanger  or  annoy  the  people  using  the  Front  in 

13 


the  least,  while  the  cars  would  make  it  far  more  acces- 
sible and  popular  than  it  would  otherwise  be. 

That  such  an  elevated  track  need  not  be  a  nuisance 
has  been  demonstrated  in  Berlin,  where  the  new  electric 
elevated  railroad  is  so  built  and  equipped,  although  re- 
ported to  have  cost  much  less  per  mile  than  similar  roads 
in  this  country,  that  it  is  practically  noiseless  and  the 
property  along  the  line  of  it  has  actually  appreciated  in 
value  following  its  construction,  while  the  space  under 
the  tracks  has  become  a  popular  sheltered  promenade. 
If  such  tracks  were  provided  for  and  kept  under  public 
control  so  as  not  to  give  exclusive  use  of  them  to  the 
street  car  companies,  it  would  be  possible  also  to  have 
them  connect  at  each  end  with  the  steam  railroad  tracks 
and  to  have  excursion  trains  hauled  over  them  by  electric 
locomotives  directly  to  the  steamboat  landings. 


••&*•••  j »L  CONTINUOUS  0 

LcEAC:H          fs'HELTE^      PROMEMAD 

ETC-     _M 


SECTION  SHOWING  POSSIBLE  MODIFICATION 
Or  NO.I. PROVIDING  FOR  LOOPUNEOF 
ELECTRIC  CARS  To  CONNECT  WITH  ALL 
STEAMBOAT  LINES. 
No.2 

M 


In  case  such  a  project  as  the  above  should  prove, 
upon  careful  examination,  to  be  feasible — that  is  to  say, 
if  it  should  be  found  either  now,  or  ten  or  twenty  or  fifty 
years  from  now,  that  the  probable  volume  of  business 
would  be  sufficient  to  justify  the  necessary  expenditure 
for  such  a  large  piece  of  construction  as  I  have  outlined — 
such  a  project  might  be  further  supplemented  by  a  con- 
tinuous open  promenade  on  the  flat  roof  of  this  covered 
second  story  at  a  level  high  enough  to  command  the  river 
even  over  the  decks  of  the  steamers  which  will  at  times 
form  a  continuous  obstruction  to  the  view  of  the  river 
from  the  lower  levels.  Again,  looking  to  the  distant 
future,  the  electric  car  tracks  also  might  be  covered  over, 
if  deemed  advisable,  so  as  to  give  an  elevated  driveway  or 
street,  free  from  any  annoyance  of  car  tracks,  not  itself 
interfering  with  the  enjoyment  of  the  foot  passengers  on 
the  promenade  at  the  edge  of  the  river,  but  high  enough 
to  look  over  them  to  the  view  and  affording  a  street 
frontage  for  the  land  back  of  the  quay — land  which  is 
now  and  must  otherwise  remain  only  back  land.  Of 
course,  in  buildings  to  be  erected  on  this  land  the  street 
floor  on  the  river  front  would  correspond  with  the  third 
floor  on  the  side  streets. 

Such  an  elevated  River  Drive  would  be  substantially 
on  a  level  with  Jefferson  Avenue,  and  would  connect  with 
it  by  approaches  at  Woodward  Avenue  as  well  as  at 
Brush  and  Third  Streets.  At  Woodward  Avenue  the 
width  of  the  street  is  so  great  that  it  would  permit  the 
construction  of  an  inclined  approach  in  the  middle  of  the 
street  without  disturbing  property  at  the  sides  at  all,  and 
the  grades  are  such  that  the  central  inclined  roadway, 
starting  up  from  Woodbridge  Street,  would  be  high 
enough  by  the  time  it  reached  Atwater  Street  to  allow 
the  latter  to  pass  under  without  interference.  At  Brush 
and  Third  Streets  there  would  seem  to  be  no  difficulty 

15 


KJt 


.•WAREHOUSES  ETC. 


CONTINUOUS  OPEN 
PROMENADE 

LIGHTS 


ECTRIC      WA)T|NG  ROOMS  COVERED 

I  JlREFRESHMEI^TS^ETC.   PROMENADE. 


II     " 
a       FREIGHT  |  ROOMS.  1 


SECTION  SHOWING  POSSIBLE  ULTIMATE: 
DEVELOPMENT  OF  RIVER  FRONT. 
No.  3 

in  securing  adequate  approaches  to  the  raised  drive  and 
promenade. 

Assuming  such  a  structure  to  be  built  in  the  most 
economical  manner  consistent  with  durability  and  safety 
from  fire,  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not  still  be 
admirably  dignified  in  architectural  character  and  form 
a  really  noble  front  to  the  city.  Built  of  concrete,  in  the 
simplest  and  most  straightforward  manner,  without  the 
least  elaboration  of  applied  ornament  or  architectural 
gewgaws,  all  that  is  necessary  to  make  it  a  noble  work 
of  civic  art  is  good  proportioning  of  its  parts. 

A  very  important  phase  of  such  an  improvement  would 
be  its  relation  to  adjacent  property  on  the  landward  side. 
For  warehouses  and  certain  kinds  of  light  manufacture, 
the  central  location  with  respect  to  the  business  district 
of  the  city,  when  supplemented  by  the  direct  connection 
of  the  basement  story  with  the  wharves  and  possibly 
with  railroad  sidings,  should  render  these  sites  exceed- 

16 


ingly  valuable  if  intelligently  developed,  and  rentals  of 
the  right  of  opening  upon  the  tracks  and  quay,  and  also 
of  the  right  of  opening  upon  the  upper  roadway,  and 
under  cover  to  the  electric  car  stations,  ought  to  be  suf- 
ficient to  pay  the  interest  charges  on  a  very  considerable 
municipal  investment.  Moreover,  the  convenience  of  the 
location  in  respect  to  the  passenger  steamers  and  the 
railroads,  and  the  great  interest  of  the  southern  outlook 
over  the  water  and  the  shipping,  should  make  a  location 
on  the  improved  River  Front  an  admirable  one  for  a  great 
hotel  catering  especially  to  the  excursion  and  convention 
business,  for  which  the  natural  advantages  of  Detroit 
have  already  given  it  such  prominence  despite  the  inade- 
quate accommodations  which  have  hitherto  been 
afforded. 

But  for  whatever  purposes  permanent  buildings 
might  be  erected  on  The  Front,  there  is  no  reason  why 
they  should  not  be  of  substantial  and  dignified  construc- 
tion; and  if  the  city,  having  taken  a  hand  in  providing 
the  facilities  of  The  Front,  were  to  give  the  use  of  them 
to  abutting  property  only  on  condition  that  building  plans 
be  approved  by  the  officers  in  charge  of  the  improvement, 
it  would  be  possible  to  secure  a  consistent  character  in 
the  adjacent  buildings  which  would  make  the  whole  com- 
position one  of  the  most  dignified  and  striking  city  fronts 
in  the  world. 

As  I  said  before  launching  upon  the  above  descrip- 
tion, it  is  nothing  more  than  a  pleasant  dream  based  upon 
an  utterly  superficial  acquaintance  with  the  situation, 
and  the  chances  are  that  the  project  which  I  have  thus 
outlined  by  way  of  example  is  quite  different  from  the 
result  which  sober,  patient  study  of  the  conditions  would 
lead  to;  but  I  am  absolutely  confident  that  such  intelli- 
gent, patient,  comprehensive  study  of  the  water  front 
problems  will  be  able  to  evolve  some  method  of  treatment 


which  will,  if  adopted  and  consistently  followed,  bring  to 
the  community  in  the  long  run  an  enormously  greater 
return  from  the  asset  which  it  possesses  in  its  central 
river  frontage  than  it  is  likely  to  get  by  letting  matters 
drift  along  under  the  impulse  of  diverse  private  initiative, 
directed  almost  solely  by  a  regard  for  immediate  cash 
returns. 

In  the  long  successful  future  of  Detroit  the  possible 
difference  to  the  city  between  a  wise  and  an  unwise  treat- 
ment of  the  Front  will  be  measurable  in  millions  of 
dollars,  and  the  present  investment  of  a  few  thousands 
in  a  sufficiently  thorough  study  to  set  matters  moving 
on  the  right  path,  is  in  the  nature  of  an  insurance  pre- 
mium at  a  rate  so  low  that  no  business  corporation 
would  hesitate  for  an  instant  to  pay  it  out.  Are  the 
people  of  Detroit  so  fixed  in  the  short-sighted,  hand-to- 
mouth  methods  of  business,  which  frontier  conditions 
once  forced  upon  the  whole  American  people,  that  they 
cannot  learn  the  lesson  which  the  Trusts  are  teaching  on 
every  hand — that  great  and  continued  success  in  any  big 
enterprise  comes  from  thorough  and  unstinted  investiga- 
tion, comprehensive  plans,  and  then  steady,  unhurried, 
but  firm  and  undeviating  pursuit  of  the  adopted  plan  or 
policy? 

B.     The  Railroad  Yards 

For  a  distance  of  some  half  mile  or  more  on 
either  side  of  the  River  Front  proper  the  shore  is  bor- 
dered by  railroad  yards,  including  the  car-ferry  slips  and 
wharves,  where  a  small  amount  of  freight  is  transferred 
between  rail  and  water.  What  the  future  of  these  sec- 
tions is  likely  to  be  I  have  at  present  no  means  of 
judging,  but  I  would  point  out  that  any  planning  for  their 
best  ultimate  utilization  is  deeply  involved  with  three 

18 


other  important  problems;  namely,  the  location  of  the 
proposed  tunnel  under  the  river,  the  location  and  char- 
acter of  the  future  Union  Station  to  which  Detroit  must 
look  forward,  and  the  decision  as  to  whether  to  undertake 
the  very  costly  elimination  of  the  grade  crossings  all 
along  the  present  railroad  approach  to  the  Grand  Trunk 
Station  from  the  north,  or  to  abandon  that  station  and  its 
yards  in  favor  of  the  proposed  Union  Station.  These  are 
large  and  complex  questions  about  which  the  experts  of 
the  railroad  corporations  probably  have  a  much  better 
knowledge  than  anyone  else,  but  the  city  is  deeply  con- 
cerned in  having  them  solved  in  a  comprehensive  way 
and  with  due  consideration  for  the  interests  of  the  com- 
munity as  a  whole  as  well  as  for  the  interest  of  the 
railroad  stockholders. 

If  a  commission  is  appointed  to  study  the  water 
front  problem,  it  would  seem  highly  desirable  to  give  it 
authority  and  means  to  study  also  these  railroad  problems 
and  to  consult  with  the  railroad  officials  about  their 
solution. 

C.     The  West  Manufacturing  Belt 

Beginning  at  the  end  of  the  railroad  yards  not 
far  from  the  West  Boulevard  and  extending  far  beyond 
the  present  city  limits,  is  the  district  which  more  than 
any  other  seems  destined  to  hold  the  great  industrial 
future  of  Detroit.  The  main  railroad  lines  are  far  enough 
back  from  the  river  to  allow  ample  space  for  the  develop- 
ment of  industrial  plants  of  the  largest  size  with  docks 
and  wharves  of  any  desired  length,  yet  the  distance  to 
the  railroad  is  not  so  great  or  the  space  so  much  occupied 
as  to  interfere  with  the  ready  construction  of  numerous 
sidings;  the  river  affords  not  only  the  opportunity  of 
cheap  water  shipments  but  an  unfailing  cheap  supply  of 

19 


water  for  manufacturing  purposes.  It  is  to  be  confidently 
expected  that  the  greater  part  of  this  region  will  be 
occupied  by  factories  among  a  network  of  freight  tracks 
and  with  a  great  series  of  wharves  and  docks  extending 
for  miles  along  the  river.  Private  enterprise,  following 
the  lines  of  least  resistance,  is  shaping  this  region  to  the 
purposes  which  it  is  best  fitted  to  serve. 

But  there  are  certain  problems  which  must  be  dealt 
with  here  by  common  action,  and  the  earlier  they  are 
studied  the  more  successfully  and  economically  can  they 
be  met.  The  success  of  the  factories  will  be  largely 
dependent  upon  the  economy,  convenience,  decency  and 
general  satisfaction  with  which  their  working  people  are 
able  to  live  and  go  to  and  from  their  work.  And  two 
factors  having  a  very  important  bearing  on  those  ques- 
tions are,  first,  the  arrangement  of  main  highways  and 
street  car  lines  in  relation  to  the  factories,  to  the  network 
of  steam  railroad  tracks,  and  to  conveniently  located  and 
agreeable  but  cheap  residence  districts ;  and,  second,  the 
distribution  of  parks  and  other  means  of  recreation, 
including  occasional  shore  parks  or  recreation  piers. 

Sooner  or  later,  as  this  district  develops,  it  will  almost 
surely  prove  desirable;  for  example,  that  the  public 
acquire  some  of  the  islands  opposite  Wyandotte  and  make 
there  a  second  and  greater  Belle  Isle. 

The  highway  problem  is  a  complex  one,  and  it  is 
about  as  sure  as  anything  human  can  be  that  if  a  compre- 
hensive skeleton  plan  with  grades  is  not  skilfully  worked 
out  in  advance,  with  due  regard  to  the  need  for  numerous 
railroad  freight  tracks,  the  community  will  have  to 
shoulder  a  needlessly  heavy  burden  in  the  future,  both  in 
delay  of  traffic  and  loss  of  life  due  to  unnecessary  grade 
crossings,  and  also  in  the  cost  of  abolishing  such  grade 
crossings  when  they  become  intolerable. 


D.  The  East  Manufacturing  Belt 

East  of  the  present  Grand  Trunk  Railroad  yards 
the  river  is  followed  by  a  collection  of  industrial  plants 
the  location  of  which  was  probably  determined  for  the 
most  part  by  the  presence  of  the  City  Transit  Railroad 
and  the  Belt  Line.  From  hasty  examination  of  this  dis- 
trict it  would  seem  as  though  no  important  interests 
would  be  seriously  affected  by  the  public  control  of  this 
water  front  and  the  ultimate  construction  of  a  properly 
designed  embankment  adapted  to  permit  such  use  of  the 
river  by  the  factories  on  the  landward  side,  as  is  cus- 
tomary in  connection  with  the  public  quays  of  so  many 
important  river  towns  in  Europe.  If  this  should  prove 
to  be  feasible,  it  opens  up  the  possibility  of  a  continuous 
connection  along  the  river  from  the  center  of  the  city  to 
Belle  Isle  Bridge  and  the  Boulevard,  a  possibility  so  de- 
sirable to  keep  open  that  it  is  worth  the  most  careful 
scrutiny. 


E.  The  Belle  Isle  Section 

Near  the  bridge,  and  extending  for  some  dis- 
tance up-stream,  the  shore  is  utilized  for  a  miscellaneous 
lot  of  summer  amusements  provided  by  private  enter- 
prise and  looking  on  the  whole  rather  shabby  and  down- 
at-the-heel.  Such  establishments  serve  a  very  good  pur- 
pose, only  they  fail  to  serve  it  as  well  as  could  be  desired, 
and  the  community  would  be  better  off  if  they  were  given 
a  certain  amount  of  intelligent  supervision  and  encour- 
agement to  improve.  There  is  plainly  no  reason  why  a 
public  shore  drive  and  promenade  could  not  be  worked 
out  in  connection  with  a  lot  of  popular  amusements  of 
this  sort,  as  has  been  so  successfully  done  at  some  of  the 


great  beach  resorts  of  the  Atlantic  Coast,  often  under  far 
more  difficult  circumstances. 

Going  further  up  the  shore,  there  lies  on  both  sides 
of  the  water-works  a  region  which  is  apparently  likely 
to  develop  into  the  most  attractive  residence  district  of  the 
city.  With  its  rapid  transit  facilities  on  Jefferson  avenue, 
with  the  easy  possibility  of  a  broad  rural  parkway  laid 
out  along  the  now  unoccupied  river  bank,  with  no  steam 
railroads  on  that  side  of  the  city  to  bring  in  factories  or  a 
factory  population,  there  seems  to  be  every  reason  to 
suppose  that  a  prosperous  and  remarkably  beautiful  resi- 
dential suburb  will  develop  in  this  direction ;  and  the  land 
owners  could  well  afford  to  meet  the  city  half  way  in 
establishing  along  the  shore  a  liberal  strip  of  park. 

In  view  of  the  comparative  ease  with  which  such  a 
parkway  could  be  provided  for  between  the  Boulevard 
at  the  present  Belle  Isle  Bridge  and  the  Water  Works 
Park,  I  wish  to  express  my  unqualified  opposition  to  the 
construction  at  any  time  of  a  second  bridge  to  connect 
the  Water  Works  Park  with  the  upper  end  of  the  Island. 
Aside  from  its  cost  and  its  needlessness,  such  a  bridge 
would  inevitably  create  a  popular  clamor  for  various  con- 
veniences and  attractions  at  the  easterly  end  of  the  Island, 
and  sooner  or  later,  item  by  item,  would  force  the  intro- 
duction of  features  which  would  in  the  long  run  entirely 
destroy  the  very  essence  of  the  quality  that  makes  the 
east  end  of  Belle  Isle  such  a  precious  possession  for  a 
large  city — namely,  the  sense  of  remoteness  from  things 
urban  which  one  feels  in  passing  into  those  peaceful  and 
unembellished  woods. 


II. 

Belle    Isle    Park 

The  principal  immediate  question  in  connec- 
tion with  Belle  Isle  Park  is  that  of  a  better  casino.  The 
present  building  I  understand  to  be  somewhat  inadequate 
in  size  and  defective  in  its  accommodations,  and  it  is 
plainly  not  a  very  dignified  or  agreeable  work  of  archi- 
tecture. Its  material  and  construction  are  such  that  after 
a  comparatively  short  life  of  usefulness  it  has  become 
decidedly  shabby,  and  this  shabbiness,  taken  with  the 
rather  poor  service  which  I  am  told  is  accorded  by  the 
casino  when  it  is  running,  make  it  much  less  useful  and 
attractive  than  such  a  building  ought  to  be.  It  appears 
to  be  generally  accepted  that  a  new  casino,  better  built, 
more  conveniently  arranged,  larger  and  of  superior  archi- 
tectural design  ought  now  to  be  erected,  and  the  imme- 
diate question  is  as  to  the  general  character  of  such  a  per- 
manent casino  building  and  its  best  location. 

I  beg  to  point  out,  however,  before  taking  up  this 
question,  that  the  real  usefulness  and  attractiveness  of 
such  a  building  as  a  place  of  refreshment  is  far  more 
dependent  upon  first-class  housekeeping  and  catering  than 
even  upon  the  excellence  of  the  building  itself,  and  that 
no  expenditure  of  money,  or  of  ingenuity  and  good  taste 
in  the  location  and  design  of  the  new  casino  building, 
will  bring  satisfactory  returns  to  the  community  unless 
steps  are  taken  to  secure  the  best  possible  management 
of  the  casino.  The  matters  of  the  highest  importance  are 
its  daily,  weekly  and  annual  maintenance  in  the  best 
of  repair  and  the  highest  state  of  cleanliness  and  neatness, 
and  the  provision  of  such  kinds  of  food  and  service  as 
will  not  merely  suffice  to  meet  the  actual  demands  of  the 

23 


general  run  of  people  who  resort  to  the  park,  but  keep 
always  a  step  or  two  in  advance  of  those  demands — not 
in  the  way  of  elaborateness  or  costliness  of  fittings,  of 
food  or  of  service,  but  in  keeping  such  simple  variety  of 
fare  as  may  be  offered  up  to  the  very  best  standard  of  its 
kind.  The  problem  is  not  an  easy  one.  It  is  a  distinctly 
more  difficult  problem  in  catering  and  housekeeping  than 
is  offered  to  the  steward  of  most  clubs,  or  to  the  man- 
agers of  most  hotels,  which  are  apt  to  cater  to  a  much  less 
varied  class  of  patrons  than  those  who  ought  to  be  able 
to  resort  with  satisfaction  to  the  casino  in  Belle  Isle 
Park,  and  unless  the  difficulty  and  the  absolute  import- 
ance of  securing  just  the  right  kind  of  management  in  the 
casino  is  fully  recognized  and  adequate  steps  are  taken 
to  meet  it,  the  expenditure  of  much  money  on  a  large 
and  elaborate  permanent  building  would  seem  essentially 
extravagant. 

In  considering  the  location  of  the  new  casino  it  is 
to  be  noted  that  the  special  beauty  of  Belle  Isle  Park 
consists  chiefly  of  two  landscape  elements — the  forest  and 
the  river.  The  beauty  of  the  forest  is  best  to  be  enjoyed 
by  passing  through  the  forest  itself,  not  by  looking  from 
a  building  against  the  wall  of  foliage  or  palisade  of 
trunks  which  it  presents  when  viewed  from  any  fixed 
point  of  view.  The  beauty  of  the  river,  on  the  other 
hand,  with  its  endless,  changing  flotilla  of  shipping,  pre- 
sents an  almost  ideal  scene  for  an  outlook  from  a  struc- 
ture in  which  many  people  are  assembled  for  rest  and 
for  refreshment.  It  seems  to  me,  therefore,  that  there 
can  be  no  doubt  of  the  advisability  of  so  placing  the 
casino  that  it  shall  command  the  river  to  the  best  advan- 
tage— a  condition  which  is  utterly  neglected  in  the  loca- 
tion of  the  present  building. 

In  the  original  plan  for  the  development  of  Belle 
Isle,  adopted  by  the  Park  Commission  in  1883,  this  prin- 

24 


ciple  was  recognized  in  the  allotment  of  a  location  along 
the  shore  to  a  great  covered  promenade  and  shelter  con- 
nected with  a  casino  building,  with  the  expectation  that 
such  a  great  veranda  for  the  people  would  become  an  im- 
mensely popular  place  to  sit  and  rest  and  take  refresh- 
ment, as  well  as  a  refuge  for  crowds  of  people  in  case 
of  sudden  rain  storms.  This  long  veranda-like  structure 
was  designed  to  connect  with  the  pier,  so  as  to  serve  in 
part  as  a  waiting-place  for  the  steamers  and  so  as  to  afford, 
close  at  hand,  without  the  long,  hot,  sunny  walk  which 
now  confronts  them,  a  comfortable  place  where  women 
bringing  their  babies  to  the  park  might  enjoy  the  breeze 
and  the  outlook  both  upon  the  river  and  upon  the  park, 
leaving  them  free  at  their  leisure  to  stroll  ,on  as  far  from 
this  safe  base  of  operations  as  they  might  feel  able  to  do. 

The  more  I  have  considered  the  present  condition  of 
the  park  and  the  problem  of  the  casino,  the  more  I  have 
been  convinced  that  the  fundamental  purpose  which  this 
arrangement  was  designed  to  serve  was  a  sound  one, 
whatever  might  be  said  of  the  particular  manner  in  which 
it  was  proposed  to  realize  it. 

In  the  general  plan  adopted  by  the  Commission  at 
that  time,  it  was  the  intention  to  develop  the  main  center 
of  popular  attraction  close  to  the  westerly  end  of  the 
island  near  the  pier  in  the  region  marked  "A"  upon  the 
accompanying  diagram ;  that  is  to  say,  in  the  most  acces- 
sible part  of  the  island ;  and  the  location  for  the  casino  and 
the  accompanying  stretch  of  verandas  or  covered  prome- 
nade and  shelter  was  along  the  shore  at  the  westerly  end 
of  the  island  facing  down  the  river. 

It  has  happened,  through  force  of  circumstances,  that 
the  development  of  the  park  has  taken  a  somewhat  differ- 
ent turn  and  the  main  center  of  popular  attraction  is  now 
in  the  region  marked  "C"  upon  the  diagram — somewhat 
unfortunately  removed  from  the  steamboat  landing.  This 

25 


DIAGRAM  OP  BELLE  ISLE  PARK 


new  center  of  interest  is  so  firmly  established  by  popu- 
lar habit  and  by  a  considerable  number  of  permanent 
improvements  that  it  would  seem  unwise  to  attempt  to 
revert  to  the  original  plan,  and  I  am  therefore  inclined  to 
recommend  that  the  permanent  casino  building,  with 
ample  verandas  and  connecting  sheltered  promenade, 
should  be  placed  near  the  meeting  point  of  districts  A  and 
C  upon  the  diagram,  and  that  the  landing  pier  for  the 
steamers  from  the  city  be  changed  from  the  northwest 
corner  of  the  island  to  the  southwest  corner,  near  the 
point  where  a  former  pier  existed.  Such  a  situation 
would  have  the  advantage  of  proximity  to  the  most 
popular  picnic  groves  and  it  would  admirably  command 
the  procession  of  ships  passing  up  and  down  the  main 
channel  of  the  river.  It  is  true  that  it  would  be  a  little 
further  from  the  bridge  than  the  present  casino  location, 
but  the  great  majority  of  those  who  approach  the  park 

26 


by  the  bridge  come  in  some  kind  of  vehicle,  and  having 
traversed  the  distance  from  the  Jefferson  Avenue  cars, 
can  just  as  well  go  a  few  hundred  yards  further.  The 
vast  majority  of  those  who  must  depend  upon  their  feet 
alone  to  carry  them  about  the  park  come  by  steamer,  and 
it  seems  highly  important  that  the  casino  with  its  asso- 
ciated resting  places  should  be  closely  connected  with  the 
steamboat  landing,  as  would  be  the  case  in  the  situation 
proposed. 

The  type  of  structure  suitable  for  the  proposed  casino 
building  is,  of  course,  directly  dependent  upon  the  site 
selected.  If  my  recommendation  is  followed  in  regard 
to  this  site,  it  occurs  to  me  that  a  comparatively  long 
and  narrow  building  stretching  along  the  shore  would 
be  the  most  reasonable  type  to  adopt.  Such  a  building 
would  be  much  more  open  to  the  summer  breeze  drawing 
through  it  back  and  forth  than  would  be  a  broader  struc- 
ture. It  would  give  a  pleasant  outlook  to  a  much  larger 
proportion  of  people  using  it.  Moreover,  it  would  lend 
itself  better  than  any  other  type  of  building  to  gradual 
extension  for  meeting  increased  demands  and  would  lend 
itself  readily  to  division  into  successive  sections  for  cater- 
ing to  different  classes  of  patrons.  One  section,  for  in- 
stance, might  be  of  the  lunch  counter  type  another  sec- 
tion offering  cheap,  light  refreshment  at  small  tables ;  an- 
other offering  a  more  expensive  and  substantial  meal.  All 
of  these  successive  sections  would  probably  be  united 
by  a  common  veranda  or  covered  terrace  on  the  water- 
side, while  the  cooking,  and  as  much  as  possible  of  the 
service  business,  would  be  provided  for  in  the  second 
story,  so  designed  as  to  fit  well  into  the  roof,  permitting 
the  building  as  a  whole  to  be  kept  relatively  low,  in  har- 
mony with  the  long  level  lines  of  the  island. 

Whatever  material  and  whatever  architectural  style 
may  be  adopted  for  the  building,  it  would  seem  that  two 

27 


fundamental  requirements  of  plan  should  be  borne  in 
mind — first,  the  building  should  be  capable  of  indefinite 
extension  without  injuring  its  architectural  quality,  the 
service  department  extending  along  with  the  extension 
of  the  seating  capacity;  second,  the  building  should  be 
designed  so  far  as  possible  in  its  permanent  parts  as  a 
simple  shell,  consisting  of  outer  walls,  roof  and  floors, 
while  the  interior  subdivisions  should  be  of  a  simple  and 
comparatively  temporary  sort,  so  as  to  make  possible  at 
small  cost  any  re-arrangement  of  the  interior  which  may 
be  necessitated  by  the  unforeseen  developments  of  use. 
All  of  these  conditions  seem  best  fulfilled  by  a  building 
of  the  type  I  have  suggested,  placed  in  connection  with 
a  new  steamboat  pier  and  riverside  promenade  along  the 
southerly  shore  of  the  island  near  its  western  end. 

The  fact  above  mentioned  that  a  center  of  popular 
attraction  has  been  developed  in  a  different  locality  from 
that  originally  proposed,  and  not  conveniently  related  to 
the  landing  pier  provided  in  the  early  days  of  the  park, 
leads  me  to  call  attention  to  certain  fundamental  ques- 
tions of  park  policy. 

It  cannot  be  too  strongly  emphasized  that  the  sine 
qua  non  of  the  most  successful  park  management  is  a 
consistent  adherence  to  one  controlling  policy  and  gen- 
eral plan,  year  in  and  year  out.  In  respect  to  economy 
and  in  respect  to  the  value  of  the  results,  it  is  even  more 
important  that  a  given  policy  should  be  consistently  ad- 
hered to  year  after  year  than  that  the  policy  should  itself 
be  the  best  that  could  have  been  devised.  Vacillation 
between  two  or  three  different  purposes — no  matter  how 
good  those  purposes  may  be — in  conducting  the  improve- 
ments and  the  ordinary  maintenance  work  of  a  park  is 
far  less  profitable  in  the  long  run,  both  as  to  money  cost 
and  as  to  park  results,  than  consistent  adherence  to  a 
single  policy,  even  though  it  be  a  less  admirable  one. 

28 


For  example.  In  1883  a  considerable  amount  of 
money  and  much  thoughtful  consideration  were  expended 
in  preparing  a  general  plan  for  the  future  development 
of  Belle  Isle  and  a  written  definition  of  general  policy 
for  guiding  the  development  of  the  park  and  such  modi- 
fications of  the  general  plans  as  the  needs  of  the  future 
might  necessitate.  When  the  Commission,  after  much 
deliberation  and  public  discussion,  had  adopted  such  a 
policy  and  general  plan,  it  began  constructive  work,  and 
considerable  sums  of  money  were  then  expended  in  im- 
provements the  full  value  of  which  would  only  be  at- 
tained when  certain  other  improvements  then  contem- 
plated should  in  the  course  of  time  be  carried  out.  I  am 
informed  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Department  today  that 
he  has  been  unable  to  find  in  the  files  of  the  Department, 
or  elsewhere,  any  copy  of  the  plan  or  any  copy  of  the 
written  programme — the  Constitution,  so  to  speak — which 
the  Commission  set  up  in  the  beginning  as  a  guide  for 
the  detailed  legislative  and  executive  work  required  from 
year  to  year.  In  the  absence  of  any  information  of  this 
sort  as  to  the  ultimate  purposes  which  were  in  view  in 
conducting  certain  of  the  earlier  improvements  of  the 
park,  later  Commissioners  have  been  unable  to  utilize 
the  earlier  improvements  to  their  full  value,  and  have 
been  forced  to  ignore  and  to  waste  much  of  the  result 
of  earlier  expenditures. 

The  fundamental  importance  of  adherence  to  a  con- 
sistent plan  and  policy  in  park  work  I  cannot  bring  out 
any  better  than  by  quoting  certain  passages  from  the 
report  of  1882,  of  which  I  find  a  single  copy  on  file  among 
the  papers  of  my  father,  who  was  the  Landscape  Archi- 
tect consulted  by  the  Commission  at  that  time: 

"In  several  of  the  town  parks  of  Europe,  formed 
from  one  to  three  hundred  years  ago,  no  material  modi- 
fication of  general  design,  or  enlargement  of  scope,  has, 

29 


from  the  beginning  of  them,  been  made.  The  popula- 
tion using  them  has  increased  several  fold ;  it  has  changed 
its  forms  of  government,  its  forms  of  society,  in  some 
cases  its  forms  of  religion;  it  has  changed  its  forms  of 
building;  it  has  widened,  and  lengthened,  and  sewered, 
and  paved,  and  lighted  most  of  its  streets;  it  has  demol- 
ished its  most  solid  constructions  in  walls  and  fortresses. 
In  nothing  else  has  so  little  change  of  general  design 
occurred  as  in  its  parks;  in  nothing  else  so  little  been 
done,  beyond  the  unnoticeable  removal  and  repair  of 
the  results  of  decay,  and  wear  and  tear.  While  most  other 
costly  constructions  have  been  losing  in  fitness  and  value 
for  present  use,  the  parks  are  recognized  by  all  to  have 
been,  on  the  whole,  gaining.  In  nothing  else,  then,  that 
the  people  of  one  generation  can  leave  behind  them  for 
others,  is  the  economy  of  a  steady  pursuit  of  well-con- 
sidered ends  better  established  than  it  is  by  long  experi- 
ence in  parks. 

«*  *  *  The  same  principle  of  economy  that  leads 
to  the  keeping  of  parlor  furniture  and  kitchen  utensils 
in  different  divisions  of  a  house,  will  lead  to  certain  gen- 
eral, though  less  abrupt  and  definite,  divisions  in  the 
planning  of  a  park. 

"*  *  *  A  park  is  less  fittingly  compared  to  a 
dwelling  than  to  a  great  public  hall,  attached  to  the  main 
apartment  of  which  there  are  several  dependencies,  ves- 
tibules, ante-room,  cloak-room,  refreshment-room,  a  coun- 
ter for  the  sale  of  fans,  lorgnettes,  photographs,  books  of 
the  music  and  so  on. 

"What  is  the  great  room  that  gives  the  whole  this 
name  of  'park'?  What  is  the  difference  between  the 
entertainment  to  which  it  should  invite  us  and  that  of 
a  concert-hall  or  an  opera-house?  It  is  a  place  in  which 
to  enjoy,  instead  of  musical  story-telling,  dramatically  or 
otherwise,  the  harmony  and  melody  and  poetry  of  actual 

30 


nature;  and  it  is  just  as  important  in  the  one  case  as  the 
other  to  avoid  bringing  fussy,  disturbing  business  into 
the  main  hall. 

"Every  great  park  is  valuable  in  proportion  as  it  is 
the  realization  of  an  idyllic  poem.  As  far  as  other  ob- 
jects are  entertained  upon  the  ground,  economy  requires 
that  they  shall  be  so  pursued  as  to  avoid  disturbances, 
interruptions,  and  discords  of  the  poetic  theme." 

And  the  full  value  of  such  an  ideal  park — refresh- 
ing tired  city  poeple  far  more  than  they  realize  at  the 
time — almost  like  the  unexciting  refreshment  of  pure  air 
itself — is  not  to  be  obtained  except  by  a  keen  watchful- 
ness for  continuity  of  policy  and  consistency  of  aim  in 
all  the  little  things  that  shape  from  year  to  year  the 
ever-changing  landscape.  Beautiful  as  Belle  Isle  is,  it 
ought  to  be  far  more  so  after  the  twenty  years  of  skillful 
care  expended  upon  it,  and  would  be  so  if  that  care  had 
been  more  consistently  applied  to  certain  clearly  defined 
and  practically  attainable  poetic  aims.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  greater  consistency  to  such  large  purposes  may 
guide  the  development  of  the  park  in  the  future. 


31 


III. 

Completion  and  Improvement  of  the  Boulevard 

Of  the  Boulevard  I  have  been  able  to  make 
only  a  most  cursory  examination  at  a  time  when  all  the 
details  of  improvement  were  buried  in  snow,  and  I  can 
therefore  report  merely  in  regard  to  two  matters. 

The  short  break  in  the  construction  of  the  West 
Boulevard  at  the  Michigan  Central  tracks  seems  most 
unfortunate.  There  is  no  way  of  crossing  the  tracks  even 
at  grade,  and  the  only  connection  between  the  completed 
portions  of  the  Boulevard  which  are  thus  severed  is  a 
circuitous  one  by  way  of  narrow  streets.  The  result  is 
that  the  large  investment  made  by  the  community  in  the 
completed  parts  of  the  West  Boulevard,  both  in  land  and 
construction,  does  not  begin  to  return  its  full  value  be- 
cause of  the  lack  of  this  one  piece  needed  to  make  the 
connection.  Without  the  data  for  estimating  the  cost 
of  construction  and  planting,  including  the  expense  of 
carrying  the  railroad  over  the  Boulevard,  and  without  a 
better  knowledge  of  the  city's  financial  condition  in  re- 
spect to  parks,  I  cannot  venture  a  positive  opinion  that 
the  immediate  increase  in  value  of  the  Boulevard  as  a 
result  of  completing  this  missing  link  would  justify  the 
immediate  expenditure  of  putting  it  through,  but  I  ant 
strongly  inclined  to  think  it  would.  , 

I  would  point  out,  however,  that  the  line  of  the  un- 
constructed  part  of  the  Boulevard  is  a  very  awkward  one, 
involving  two  of  the  bad  right-angled  turns,  of  which 
there  are  far  too  many  in  the  Boulevard  already,  and 
involving  also  a  long  diagonal  crossing  under  the  rail- 
road tracks  at  a  point  where  the  two  sets  of  tracks  have 

33 


already  begun  to  diverge  from  each  other.  Such  a  cross- 
ing under  the  tracks  would  not  only  be  costly  to  con- 
struct, but  when  completed  would  be  relatively  ugly  and 
unpleasant,  because  of  the  length  of  the  tunnel  or  subway 
and  its  unsymmetrical  shape.  If  the  present  location 
were  to  be  abandoned  and  a  new  location  purchased  or 
condemned  from  the  end  of  the  completed  section  south 
of  the  tracks  in  a  direct  line,  at  right  angles  to  the  rail- 
road, to  an  intersection  with  the  completed  portion  north 
of  the  tracks,  not  only  would  the  cost  of  construction  be 
materially  diminished  but  the  final  result  would  be  far. 
better  for  the  city,  securing  a  good  line  for  the  Boulevard 
and  a  short,  straight  crossing  under  the  tracks  at  a 
point  where  they  are  close  together.  The  intervening 
property  has  no  improvements  of  any  considerable  value 
upon  it,  and  as  the  route  is  shorter  it  would  take  less  land 
than  is  included  in  the  location  now  held  by  the  City, 
which  later  could  then  be  disposed  of  or  might  be  ex- 
changed in  part  for  land  on  the  straighter  route. 

Some  legal  difficulties  would  undoubtedly  arise  in 
making  such  a  change  and  some  enabling  legislation 
would  perhaps  be  required,  but  the  advantages  are  so 
obvious  that  they  should  not  be  foregone  without  a  de- 
termined effort  to  face  the  difficulties  and  overcome  them. 

I  have  referred  above  to  the  bad  corners  and  breaks 
in  the  alignment  of  the  Boulevard  at  certain  points. 
Everyone  who  has  ever  gone  over  the  line  must  be  familiar 
with  them,  and  it  should  not  take  a  fatal  accident,  like 
that  which  occurred  last  year  on  one  of  these  corners,  to 
emphasize  the  need  of  improvement.  Some  of  the  "jogs" 
can  be  very  readily  overcome  with  only  minor  changes 
in  the  lines  of  the  roadway  by  the  exercise  of  a  certain 
amount  of  ingenuity  in  planning;  but  in  certain  cases 
no  radical  improvement  can  be  made  without  some  small 
additional  land  purchases,  and  it  is  highly  important  that 

34 


the  land  needed  at  such  points  should  be  determined  and 
secured  before  buildings  erected  upon  it  shall  perma- 
nently block  the  possibility  of  improvement. 

In  several  cases  the  best  way  to  handle  these  awk- 
ward problems  would  probably  be  in  connection  with  the 
establishment  of  small  local  parks  or  squares,  a  consider- 
able number  of  which  ought  to  be  distributed  in  an  equi- 
table and  systematic  manner  in  those  parts  of  the  city 
where  provision  has  not  yet  been  made  for  them. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection  that 
Chicago  by  its  recent  purchases  of  small  parks  appears 
to  have  adopted  the  sound  policy  enunciated  by  the  recent 
Special  Park  Commission  of  that  City;  viz.,  "Playgrounds 
and  small  parks  should  be  so  placed  that  no  one  could 
live  more  than  one-half  mile  from  some  one  of  them." 
The  accompanying  diagram  indicates  the  amount  of  areas 
in  Detroit  which  are  more  than  half  a  mile  from  the  near- 
est park.  Although  I  am  tempted  to  discuss  this  subject 
further,  it  lies  somewhat  aside  from  the  problems  directly 
presented  to  me  and  to  go  into  it  thoroughly  would  lead 
so  far  afield  that  I  must  dismiss  it  with  this  brief  refer- 
ence. 


35 


IV. 
Heart    of   the    City 

The  questions  which  have  arisen  in  connection 
with  the  neighborhood  of  Cadillac  Square  are  of  two 
kinds — questions  of  detail,  such  as  those  in  regard  to 
the  location  and  character  of  monuments  and  decorations, 
the  arrangement  of  car  tracks,  etc.;  and  questions  of 
general  plan  affecting  the  property  lines  and  the  general 
disposition  of  the  permanent  building  masses  which  are 
in  the  future  to  close  in  and  give  shape  (or  deformity)  to 
the  important  public  open  spaces  which  here  mark  the 
business  center  of  the  city. 

To  worry  over  the  first  class  of  problems  while  there 
is  any  possibility  of  making  changes  in  the  general  plan 
would  be  like  starting  to  paint  and  decorate  an  old  house 
at  the  very  time  of  considering  its  reconstruction,  and  I 
shall  therefore  refer  only  to  the  larger  questions  of  gen- 
eral plan. 

The  city  is  fortunate  in  having  in  the  Campus  Mar- 
tius  and  Cadillac  Square  a  considerable  area  of  public 
open  space  at  a  point  which  is  definitely  and  permanently 
fixed  by  the  convergence  upon  it  of  a  great  series  of 
thoroughfares  as  a  municipal  center  of  dominating  im- 
portance. Whatever  direction  may  be  taken  by  different 
classes  of  urban  development,  there  is  not  the  least  ques- 
tion that  the  region  near  the  Campus  Martius  will  remain 
peculiarly  accessible  from  all  parts  of  the  city.  It  is 
therefore  a  peculiarly  appropriate  location  for  all  the  gen- 
eral municipal  offices  and  other  public  and  quasi-public 
buildings  with  which  the  whole  community  is  concerned. 
Within  this  region  and  to  the  east  of  Woodward  Avenue 
there  is  a  large  but  curiously  shapeless  ramification  of 

37 


public  open  spaces,  partly  in  streets  and  partly  in  so-called 
"squares,"  together  with  one  great  permanent  public  edi- 
fice, the  County  Building.  Intermixed  with  this  public 
area  are  several  irregular  blocks  of  private  land,  rela- 
tively low  in  value — considering  the  proximity  of  the 
financial  and  retail  centers — and  occupied  in  large  meas- 
ure by  very  second-rate  buildings. 

The  situation  of  the  City  Hall  and  the  County  Build- 
ing in  this  region  is  eminently  appropriate,  but  the  utter 
shapelessness  of  the  area  or  congeries  of  areas  upon  which 
these  two  buildings  face  makes  the  relation  of  each  to 
the  other  and  to  its  own  immediate  surroundings  very 
far  from  satisfactory. 

This  condition  has  been  so  fully  recognized  that  a 
number  of  projects  have  been  urged  for  bringing  the  re- 
gion into  a  more  orderly  condition  by  cutting  off  certain 
projecting  pieces  of  private  land  and  thus  piecing  out 
the  public  open  space  to  more  shapely  outlines,  which 
would  relate  in  a  dignified  manner  to  the  County  Build- 
ing. The  most  promising  direction  for  further  study  ap- 
pears to  be  that  pointed  out  in  the  plan  advanced  by  Mr. 
Scott  and  in  the  bolder  plan  of  Mr.  Scripps,  both  of  which 
aim  to  secure  a  distinct  new  square  in  front  of  the  County 
Building,  linked  with  the  Campus  Martius  by  a  part  of  the 
present  Cadillac  Square. 

But  while  all  of  the  projects  which  have  been  called 
to  my  attention  concern  themselves  with  the  immediately 
apparent  evils  presented  by  the  bad  relation  of  the  County 
Building  to  its  surroundings,  the  problem  as  seen  from 
the  distant  point  of  view  of  a  stranger  appears  much 
larger  than  these  plans  recognize. 

For  example,  the  relation  of  the  outline  of  the 
Campus  Martius  to  the  City  Hall  and  to  the  streets  and 
spaces  which  lead  into  it  is  also  far  from  satisfactory. 
The  old  rectangle  of  the  Campus  Martius,  although  set 

38 


eater-cornered  with  Woodward  Avenue  and  other  im- 
portant streets,  had  a  certain  shapeliness  and  must  have 
had  a  corresponding  dignity,  which  was  all  thrown  to  the 
winds  when  the  City  Hall  was  built  within  the  limits  of 
the  Campus  and  at  an  awkward  angle  with  its  boundaries. 

It  is  not  enough  therefore  to  consider  the  relation 
of  these  open  areas  to  the  County  Building;  their  relation 
to  the  present  City  Hall  or  a  future  City  Hall  on  the  same 
or  an  adjacent  site  must  also  be  considered ;  and  taking  a 
still  larger  view,  it  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  consider  their 
relation  to  the  sites  of  other  public  and  quasi-public  build- 
ings for  which  sites  must  be  found  somewhere  in  the 
future  and  for  which  this  locality  is  peculiarly  appropri- 
ate. To  mention  only  two  instances,  the  time  cannot 
long  be  delayed  when  Detroit  will  build  a  new  and  wor- 
thier public  library,  and  on  or  near  the  site  of  the  Russell 
House  private  capital  is  likely  soon  to  erect  a  modern 
fireproof  hotel  which  should  be  worthy  to  take  its  place 
in  a  group  of  monumental  public  buildings — if  only  a 
proper  place  is  provided  for  it  instead  of  allowing  it  to  jut 
awkwardly  out  in  front  of  the  City  Hall,  all  askew  with 
its  surroundings. 

If  to  the  inevitable  and  unceasing  increase  of  build- 
ing space  needed  to  accommodate  the  development  of 
City,  County  and  Federal  business  in  a  great  manufactur- 
ing center,  be  added  the  requirements  of  museums,  the- 
aters, halls  for  concerts  and  conventions,  and  similar  quasi- 
public  purposes,  a  very  little  thoughtful  consideration 
of  the  rate  of  increase  in  such  buildings  which  accompan- 
ies the  growth  of  a  modern  city  in  population  and  wealth 
will  convince  anyone  who  believes  in  the  future  of  Detroit 
that  even  the  next  generation  will  erect  enough  buildings 
of  this  class  to  form  a  very  imposing  group,  provided  that 
they  BE  grouped — provided  that  shapely  and  convenient 
spaces  be  provided  for  them  to  face  upon  so  as  to  bring 
them  into  agreeable  architectural  relationship. 

39 


The  situation  is  this :  In  the  region  between  the  City 
Hall  and  the  County  Building  lie  a  certain  number  of  square 
feet  of  land  distributed  in  ill-shapen  squares  and  street 
intersections  and  occupied  by  improvements  of  a  certain 
value,  such  as  paving,  parking,  monuments  and  street 
car  tracks;  and  also  a  certain  number  of  square  feet  of 
building  land  distributed  in  more  or  less  irregular  lots  and 
occupied  by  comparatively  inexpensive  and  outworn 
structures.  It  is  evident  that  apart  from  the  value  in- 
vested in  these  improvements  a  great  deal  better  results 
could  be  secured  for  all  concerned  if  all  this  land  could 
only  be  pooled  and  then  redivided  into  squares,  streets  and 
building  land  of  better  shape  and  better  arranged. 

The  following  alternatives  seem  to  confront  the  city 
here: 

First,  the  matter  may  be  allowed  to  drift  without 
change  in  the  street  lines,  in  which  case  private  capital 
will  from  time  to  time  replace  the  present  buildings  with 
others  of  a  more  costly  and  permanent  sort,  the  city  and 
various  semi-public  bodies  will  purchase  lots  from  time 
to  time  at  increasing  prices  and  invest  large  sums  of 
money  in  new  buildings,  but  the  whole  region  will  remain 
a  comparatively  ineffective  jumble,  and  the  money  which 
is  sure  to  be  spent  in  attempting  to  beautify  both  the 
buildings  and  the  "Squares"  will  bring  a  relatively  small 
return. 

Second,  the  city  may  improve  the  outlines  of  the 
open  area  by  making  certain  street  extensions  and  widen- 
ings,  as  has  been  proposed,  cutting  through  many  lots, 
paying  practically  the  full  value  of  every  building  affected 
even  though  but  a  small  piece  be  taken,  and  leaving  the 
new  frontage  occupied  in  part  by  ill-shaped  remnants  of 
lots  which  will  not  afford  inducements  for  the  erection 
of  desirable  buildings  in  part  by  the  newly  exposed  backs 
and  sides  of  existing  buildings,  and  in  part,  at  the  best, 

40 


by  what  is  to  be  seen  there  today,  and  then  the  usual 
process  of  hap-hazard  development  will  take  place,  and 
Detroit  will  have  acquired  at  large  expense  shapely 
squares  with  a  hodge-podge  of  buildings  around  them. 

Third,  the  city  might  make  a  carefully  digested  plan 
for  the  best  utilization  of  the  whole  region,  and  might 
then  acquire  under  mortgage  so  much  of  the  property 
abutting  on  the  present  squares  as  may  be  necessary  in 
order  to  give  it  the  power  to  effect  on  its  own  land  the 
desirable  changes  in  street  and  lot  lines  and  in  order  to 
control  the  needful  sites  for  future  public  buildings,  and 
it  might  then  take  its  time  and  make  the  actual  changes 
in  street  lines  just  so  fast  as  a  reasonable  regard  for  the 
value  of  present  improvements  will  permit,  in  the  mean- 
time leasing  such  of  the  property  as  need  not  be  vacated 
at  once  either  to  the  present  occupants  or  in  the  open 
market. 

By  readjusting  the  outline  between  the  open  space 
and  certain  parts  of  the  adjacent  building  land  (thus 
brought  under  one  control),  it  should  be  possible  to 
reach  excellent  results  without  a  great  increase  in  the 
total  area  devoted  to  streets  and  squares,  whereas  if  the 
city  does  not  itself  acquire  and  hold  any  building  land 
to  meet  its  future  needs,  it  can  improve  the  shape  of  the 
open  space  only  by  the  elimination  of  so  much  additional 
building  land — an  economic  consideration  of  considerable 
weight  in  a  region  so  near  the  heart  of  the  city. 

I  would  urge,  therefore,  that  the  Board  of  Commerce 
consider  most  carefully  whether  some  means  cannot  be 
devised  for  thus  controlling,  in  a  large,  far-sighted  and 
conservative  manner,  the  future  improvement  of  Cadillac 
Square  and  the  adjacent  building  land,  so  as  to  get  out 
of  it  the  largest  possible  returns  both  direct  and  indirect. 

But  even  if  the  Cadillac  Square  problem  be  ap- 
proached in  this  broad  and  far-sighted  manner,  it  should 

41 


not  be  considered  independently  of  other  parts  of  the 
downtown  district.  Woodward  Avenue,  as  the  backbone 
of  the  city,  connects  in  close  relation  with  the  Campus 
Martius  two  other  focal  points  of  great  importance — 
Grand  Circus  Park  and  the  center  of  the  River  Front  at 
the  foot  of  Woodward  Avenue. 

About  the  part  which  Grand  Circus  Park  is  to  play 
in  the  development  of  the  heart  of  the  City,  and  the  rela- 
tive importance  of  the  plainly  desirable  extensions  and 
developments  of  the  series  of  radial  streets  which  impinge 
upon  it,  I  cannot  venture  an  opinion  upon  such  a  super- 
ficial knowledge  as  I  possess,  but  plainly  it  involves  ques- 
tions that  ought  to  be  taken  up  at  the  same  time  with 
those  of  the  Campus  Martius  and  Cadillac  Square.  With 
them,  too,  is  involved  the  rather  dubious  possibility  of 
bringing  the  Federal  Building  into  relation  with  either 
or  both  of  these  centers  at  a  reasonable  expense,  and  here 
also  ought  to  be  considered  the  possibility  which  is  now 
opened  up — since  a  railroad  tunnel  can  burrow  as  cheaply 
under  one  part  of  the  city  as  another — of  placing  the  pro- 
posed Union  Station  somewhere  in  this  general  locality 
near  the  focus  of  all  the  street  railways  instead  of  remov- 
ing it  to  a  distance. 

It  is  hard  to  realize,  under  the  conditions  of  today, 
what  part  may  be  filled  in  the  city  of  the  future  by  the 
foot  of  Woodward  Avenue.  As  the  culminating  point  in 
the  line  where  the  traffic  of  the  City  meets  the  commerce 
of  the  Lakes,  as  the  terminus  of  that  broad  avenue  upon 
which  all  the  city's  ways  converge,  and  as  the  middle  of 
the  City's  Front,  this  spot  is  plainly  marked  as  the  site 
for  some  great  tribune,  from  which  enthroned  Detroit 
shall  review  the  vast  procession  of  the  ships  in  the  cen- 
turies to  come.  Not  even  the  towering  mass  of  Gibraltar 
itself  has  stood  guard  over  such  pageant  as  must  here 
salute  its  mistress,  and  the  day  will  surely  come — be  it 

42 


soon  or  late,  be  it  approached  with  wise  foresight  or  by 
devious  and  wasteful  courses — when  Detroit  will  here 
erect  a  great  and  monumental  structure  dominating  all 
the  aggregated  buildings  of  the  city  and  typifying  to 
the  traveler  from  afar  the  City's  own  dominion.  Rising 
from  the  base  which  will  be  formed  by  an  orderly  and 
dignified  treatment  of  the  River  Front  and  spanning  the 
axis  of  Woodward  Avenue,  such  a  structure  will  be  not 
merely  what  a  Water  Gate  was  to  the  mediaeval  city,  it 
will  be  also  what  the  proposed  peristyle  and  its  colossal 
column  were  designed  to  be  for  Detroit,  and  in  a  site 
far  more  appropriate  for  the  culminating  architectural 
accent  of  the  City ;  and  further,  if  my  forecast  is  not  mis- 
taken, when  the  time  comes  for  designing  this  great 
structure  it  will  be  not  merely  something  which  shall 
inspire  the  beholder  but  something  which  the  people  shall 
use. 

There  is  no  haste  about  the  realization  of  this  dream. 
Detroit  has  all  the  ages  before  it,  with  time  and  means 
to  accomplish  things  far  beyond  our  poor  conception.  I 
speak  of  it  only  to  point  out  that  in  the  treatment  of  the 
Campus  Martius,  of  Cadillac  Square,  of  the  Grand  Circus 
with  its  radiating  streets  and  of  other  problems  in  this 
locality  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  time  will  surely 
bring  forth  at  the  Water  Gate  some  soaring  structure  that 
will  demand  a  recognition  of  unity  throughout  the  heart 
of  the  City. 

It  is  for  the  citizens  of  Detroit  today  to  see  to  it  that 
mere  lack  of  deliberate,  broad  foresight  and  patient  in- 
ventive study  today  shall  not  compel  your  successors  to 
throw  away  and  reconstruct  the  results  of  your  efforts  as 
you  must  do  to  some  extent  to  the  work  of  your  predeces- 
sors if  you  are  to  make  a  success  of  Cadillac  Square. 


43 


Report  of  Charles  Mulford  Robinson 

GENTLEMEN: — In  accordance  with  your  request,  I  have 
examined  the  City  of  Detroit  with  a  view  to  pointing  out 
in  a  general  preliminary  report  such  civic  improvements 
as  seem  to  me  desirable.  In  the  selection  of  these  I  have 
tried  to  restrict  myself  to  those  that  are  really  practic- 
able, as  otherwise  the  report  would  have  no  more  than 
an  academic  interest  and  value.  The  duty  of  today  is 
not  to  dream  of  an  impossible  Carthage  on  the  shore  of 
the  Detroit  River;  but  taking  the  city  as  it  is,  and  with 
due  regard  to  the  rapid  increase  in  its  population  and 
wealth  and  the  rise  of  its  civic  ideals,  to  suggest  the  pos- 
sible changes  that  are  best  worth  while,  that  will  count 
for  most  and  are  most  essential  to  make  it  seize  the 
chance  which  is  at  its  hand  and  to  realize  its  opportunity 
for  civic  beauty,  convenience  and  stateliness. 

This  will  cost  something.  There  is  nothing  good  that 
doesn't  cost.  But  if  you  have  faith  in  Detroit,  even  the 
faith  in  it  that  is  had  by  the  outside  world,  you  will  not 
be  afraid  of  some  expense.  In  nothing  that  we  do,  are 
we  building  so  surely  for  the  future  as  in  the  development 
of  our  cities.  If,  now,  in  any  proposed  change  that  is 
within  the  bounds  of  financial  reason  an  immediate  and 
certain  advantage  is  added  to  the  future  good,  that 
change  should  thereby  become  practicable.  The  faint- 
hearted will  be  reassured  and  you  will  have  ready  an 
answer  for  the  selfish  who  derisively  ask  what  posterity 
ever  has  done  for  them — forgetful  of  their  own  inheri- 

45 


tance  from  the  past.  So  your  committee  understands,  I 
am  sure,  that  "practicable"  means  more  than  so  simple 
as  to  be  done  today  and  tomorrow  or  so  cheap  as  to  be  paid 
for  out  of  current  expenses.  It  means  that  a  faith  and 
courage,  justified  by  past  and  present,  is  the  wise  basis 
of  the  planning. 

In  looking  over  a  city  to  determine  what  may  be 
done  to  make  it  grasp  its  civic  opportunities,  I  think  we 
have  to  remember  that  not  remodeling,  but  development, 
is  to  be  desired.  Cities  have  as  marked  an  individuality 
as  people,  and  whatever  charm  and  separate  attractive- 
ness they  have  lies  in  those  peculiarities  which  stamp 
them  with  personality — which,  for  example,  cause  Detroit 
to  be  Detroit,  and  not  Buffalo  or  Milwaukee.  To  per- 
ceive these  and  to  develop  them  as  Athens  developed  (too 
narrowly)  the  Acropolis,  or  Rome  the  Forum,  is  to  insure 
the  city's  interest  and  distinctive  charm,  for  they  are  the 
things  that  make  cities  remembered. 

The  Street  Plan 

Now  there  are  two  features  of  Detroit  that  are  pe- 
culiar to  it  and  especially  distinctive.  These  are  the 
river,  with  its  vast  even  flow  of  pure  water,  and  the  street 
arrangement  that  has  resulted  from  the  Governor  and 
Judges'  plan.  In  making  any  change  in  street  topog- 
raphy, I  think  it  very  essential  that  respect  and  consid- 
eration should  be  shown  for  that  plotting  which  not  only 
is  an  essential  and  interesting  characteristic  of  the  city, 
but  which  is  the  very  frame  and  skeleton  on  which  local 
history  is  hung.  In  making  street  changes,  you  should 
cherish  the  spirit  of  the  old  plan,  developing  it  and  fitting 
it  to  new  conditions,  but  not  slashing  it  right  and  left  as 
regardless  as  if  you  had  only  the  colorless  checkerboard 
of  the  usual  city  map  on  which  to  work. 

46 


Nearly  all  the  most  serious  mistakes  of  Detroit's 
past  have  arisen  from  a  disregard  of  the  spirit  of  the 
Governor  and  Judges'  plan.  If  the  plotters  of  the  farms 
had  had  respect  for  that,  instead  of  each  going  his  own 
way,  the  streets  beyond  Cass  and  Brush  would  not  have 
had  the  jogs  they  now  hav«,  and  Detroit  would  have  had 
a  better  chance  for  beauty  and  harmony,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  added  convenience  and  economy  for  its  citizens  in 
getting  about.  The  same  thing  has  been  true  as  regards 
the  plotters  of  the  suburban  tracts  just  beyond  the  stead- 
ily advancing  city  line ;  and  it  was  neglect  of  the  spirit 
of  that  plan  that  placed  the  County  Building  where  it 
now  stands,  as  it  was  indifference  to  the  fine  topographi- 
cal provision  of  civic  centers  that  put  the  Federal  Build- 
ing almost  out  of  sight.  Even  the  City  Hall  would  not 
have  stood  just  where  it  does,  had  the  plan  been  fully 
respected. 

But  to  think  of  correcting  all  these  errors  and  to 
devise  a  new  and  splendid  modern  city  on  a  careful  and 
accurate  development  of  the  original  plotting  is  not  the 
problem  of  the  hour,  because  it  would  not  be  practicable. 
We  may  note,  for  instance,  taking  them  one  by  one,  that 
Grand  River  Avenue  ought  to  be  matched  by  another 
splendid  diagonal  between  Gratiot  and  Woodward, 
which  would  cut  an  extension  of  Grand  River  at  right 
angles,  offering  direct  communication  to  the  residents  of 
the  northeastern  section  of  the  city.  If  this  could  be 
made  a  parkway,  as  Philadelphia  is  now  building  a  splen- 
did diagonal  parkway,  and  could  be  connected  with  the 
boulevard,  so  much  the  better.  But  unless  the  ill-fortune 
of  a  fire,  such  as  recently  devastated  large  areas  in  other 
cities,  should  chance  to  lay  bare  that  portion  of  Detroit, 
it  will  not  be  practicable  to  cut  the  avenue  through,  be- 
cause with  the  other  needs  the  demand  for  this  will  not 
justify  the  expense.  We  may  only  keep  the  thought  of 

47 


it  in  mind,  to  be  ready  should  opportunity  offer.  Simi- 
larly one  can  wish  that  Griswold  Street  might  be  some- 
time extended  at  its  full  width  to  the  river. 

Again,  there  are  innumerable  jogs  in  the  streets  that 
run  east  and  west,  and  much  perfectly  justifiable  com- 
plaint concerning  them ;  but  it  is  out  of  the  question  to 
remedy  all  of  these  now.  I  observed  that  in  a  great  many 
cases,  however,  it  is  feasible  to  work  an  immediate  im- 
provement by  the  substitution  of  a  curve  for  the  present 
double  right-angle.  In  these  cases  it  is  simply  a  matter 
of  curbing  and  plotting,  involving  the  purchase  of  no 
additional  property.  In  yet  other  cases,  the  acquirement 
of  no  more  than  ten  or  fifteen  feet  from  the  corners  of  un- 
occupied lots  will  render  possible  a  change  by  which  a 
curve,  making  a  really  delightful  street  variation,  could 
be  substituted  for  the  present  awkward,  annoying,  dan- 
gerous and  retarding  "jog."  As  fast  as  opportunity  of- 
fers, these  changes  ought,  of  course,  to  be  brought  about ; 
and  little  by  little  there  would  thus  be  wrought  a  very 
great  and  very  practical  improvement  in  the  city  plan. 
I  would  recommend  the  appointment  of  a  sub-committee 
to  act  in  this  matter.  It  should  represent  the  Board  and 
should  make  it  a  duty  to  watch  for  these  chances  and  to 
see  that  they  are  availed  of  by  the  city  to  rectify  present 
conditions.  Unless  some  committee  relpre/senting  the 
whole  city  is  thus  on  the  watch,  they  are  too  likely  to  be 
overlooked  or  to  have  only  the  weak  advocacy  of  the 
local  neighborhood.  The  work  is  important  to  the  city 
at  large,  and  by  the  suggested  committee  much  good  can 
be  done. 

Coming  to  the  matter  of  the  irregular  plotting  of 
suburban  areas,  it  is  remarkable  that  with  so  many  ex- 
amples of  the  evil  consequences  which  result  from  lack 
of  a  comprehensive  scheme,  there  is  still  permitted  a  con- 
tinuance of  inharmonious  plotting.  An  immediate  and 


obvious  remedy  would  be  the  extension  of  the  city  line. 
It  may  properly  be  argued  that  when  the  urban  popula- 
tion has  reached  so  near  a  certain  tract  as  to  make  worth 
while  its  division  and  sub-division  into  streets,  the  time 
has  come  for  the  city  to  exert  over  the  tract  that  super- 
vision which  it  is  supposed  to  exercise  over  all  the  land 
within  its  boundaries.  It  is  not  as  if  the  new  areas  were 
to  be  always  a  frontier,  their  sins  to  be  forgiven  as  those 
of  a  frontier.  With  the  wonderful  increase  in  rapid 
transit  facilities,  the  onward  march  of  the  city  is  no  less 
certain  than  is  its  gain  in  population,  and  streets  that  are 
on  today's  frontier  may  tomorrow  be  arteries  of  heavy 
travel.  In  thus  extending  the  city  line  also,  in  riling  a 
"city  map,"  and  in  demanding  adherence  to  its  lines  in 
the  new  plotting,  Detroit  would  be  only  following  the 
precedent  of  other  cities. 

The  location  of  Public  Buildings 

As  for  the  location  of  the  public  buildings,  it  has 
been  resolved  to  postpone,  for  some  years  at  least,  the 
erection  of  a  new  City  Hall,  while  the  location  of  the 
Federal  and  County  Buildings  is  to  be  now  accepted  as 
fixed.  Not  to  deplore  the  loss  of  an  exceptional  oppor- 
tunity, but  to  make  the  best  of  the  situation,  is  the  pres- 
ent duty. 

Consideration  of  these  buildings  necessarily  involves 
consideration  of  the  Campus  Martius  and  of  Cadillac 
Square,  which  are  in  the  very  heart  of  the  city,  and  of 
which  the  former  was  a  striking  feature  of  the  Governor 
and  Judges'  plan.  As  the  city  has  developed,  and  great 
buildings  have  clustered  around  the  Campus  instead  of 
around  the  Grand  Circus,  this  has  become  in  fact  the  most 
conspicuous  feature  of  the  plan — as  unique  in  the  possi- 
bilities of  its  civic  function  as  in  the  name  that  has  clung 

49 


to  it.  Properly  to  develop  this,  to  make  it  for  Detroit 
what  the  Place  de  la  Concorde  is  to  Paris,  to  throw  the 
emphasis  of  civic  improvement  effort  upon  this  space — 
to  which  center  each  of  the  four  greatest  streets  of  the 
city — and  so  to  bring  out  and  ennoble  the  most  promi- 
nently persistent  feature  of  the  Governor  and  Judges' 
plan — this  will  do  more  for  Detroit  than  any  other  one 
thing,  save  the  reclaiming  of  some  of  the  river  bank,  and 
it  will  be  to  the  enhancement — not  the  loss — of  the  indi- 
viduality of  the  city. 

Unhappily  the  problem  has  lately  become  extremely 
difficult.  The  first  and  most  obvious  necessity  is  the  re- 
moval of  the  buildings — fortunately  still  cheap  two  and 
three-story  structures — that  are  on  the  north  side  of 
Cadillac  Square,  and  that  screen  half  of  the  County  Build- 
ing from  the  City  Hall  and  Campus.  The  action,  which 
should  of  course  be  taken  immediately,  seems  to  be  abso- 
lutely essential,  and  it  will  be  folly  for  Detroit  to  pretend 
to  any  regard  for  the  principles  of  civic  aesthetics  while 
this  blot  remains.  It  would  seem,  however,  that  the 
county  might  well  bear  half  of  the  expense,  since  the  pur- 
pose is  to  reveal  the  County  Building,  and  so  to  give  a 
return  on  the  large  investment  which  it  has  made  in  the 
structure's  dignity  and  beauty. 

The  buildings  run  back  a  hundred  feet  to  a  twenty 
foot  alley,  and  with  this  addition  to  its  area  a  remodeling 
of  Cadillac  Square  will  become  necessary.  It  will  be 
then  a  splendid  plaza  three  hundred  and  twenty  feet 
wide,  and  will  invite  a  rearrangement  of  the  civic  sculp- 
ture— monuments  and  fountains — now  scattered  some- 
what promiscuously  about  Campus  and  Square. 

I  have  given  a  good  deal  of  thought  to  the  problem, 
as  it  will  be  thus  presented,  and  my  personal  feeling  is 
that  it  may  be  advisable  to  purchase  one  other,  compara- 
tively small,  piece  of  real  estate,  regarding  which  there 

50 


seems  at  this  time  to  be  no  hurry;  that  it  will  then  be 
possible  to  rearrange  the  car  tracks  in  the  Campus 
Martius,  without  detriment  to  traffic,  and  to  erect  an  Isle 
of  Safety,  that  will  serve  also  as  a  waiting  place  for  pas- 
sengers who  desire  to  board  the  trolleys,  and  that  will 
be  ornamentally  lighted,  making  it  a  handsome,  approp- 
riate and  useful  feature  of  the  new  development.  Some 
Isles  of  Safety  are  already  very  much  needed  on  the 
Campus ;  but  in  view  of  the  necessity  of  remodeling  the 
whole  space — now  an  insignificant  jumble  of  trolley  cars 
and  stray  statuary — plans  for  these  may  well  be  held  in 
abeyance.  The  possibilities  of  the  space  are  so  fine,  and 
its  noble  development  will  add  so  much  to  the  appear- 
ance of  Detroit,  that  I  urge  you  with  all  the  force  I  have 
to  summon  to  the  solution  of  this  complex  problem  a 
commission  that  shall  include  an  architect,  a  landscape 
architect,  and  a  city  designer.  You  should  not  trust  it  to 
one  man.  His  success  or  failure  at  this  point  means  too 
much  to  you;  and  it  is  deserving,  both  in  its  difficulty 
and  in  its  reward  for  success,  of  the  combined  judgment 
and  knowledge  of  several  experts.  All  that  I  can  attempt 
to  do  in  this  report  is  to  bid  you  see  that  the  structures 
on  the  north  side  of  Cadillac  Square  now  screening  the 
County  Building  be  purchased,  and  then,  putting  my 
finger  on  the  Campus  Martius,  to  say,  develop  that  to  its 
utmost,  and  for  this  purpose  call  to  your  aid  a  commis- 
sion of  experts. 

The  Federal  Building  is  so  isolated  by  its  site  that 
the  problem  is  to  bring  it  into  relation  with  the  other 
public  structures,  for  the  day  has  gone  by  when  it  is  nec- 
essary to  present  to  such  a  committee  as  yours  any  argu- 
ments for  the  apparent  grouping  of  the  public  buildings. 
You  fully  appreciate  that  in  the  creation  of  a  Civic  Cen- 
ter (already  nearly  realized),  through  the  bringing  of 
these  buildings  into  a  single  comprehensive  scheme,  De- 

51 


troit  would  take  its  place  among  the  beautiful  cities  of 
the  world.  And  the  distance  between  the  Federal  Build- 
ing and  the  County  Building,  much  of  which  is  already  a 
public  open  space,  is  no  more  than  that  between  the  most 
distant  structures  which  the  city  of  Cleveland  is  now 
bringing  into  a  splended  Court  of  Honor. 

To  connect  the  Federal  Building  with  the  central 
scheme,  the  row  of  buildings — still,  happily,  unimport- 
ant— on  the  north  side  of  Fort  street,  between  it  and  the 
City  Hall,  ought  to  be  removed.  This  space  should  not, 
then,  be  thrown  into  the  street  to  become  part  of  a  broad 
Plaza,  as  will  be  done  at  Cadillac  Square,  but  it  should  be 
given  a  distinct  development  that  will  frankly  indicate  its 
exact  purpose,  and  it  should  even  be  shut  off  from  the 
street  by  a  line  of  ornamental  columns  that  will  carry  on 
the  building  line. 

These  changes  mean  altogether  a  considerable  ex- 
penditure and  the  acquirement  of  a  good  deal  of  prop- 
erty; but  once  the  land  is  purchased  its  development, 
which  can  wait  if  you  desire,  will  not  be  expensive.  The 
sale  of  the  material  may  fully  care  for  that.  And  I  know 
of  no  other  city  in  the  country  where  the  purchase  of  so 
little  and,  so  inexpensively  built  up,  would  give  so  large 
a  public  tract  before  and  around  the  public  buildings,  and 
would  offer  so  splendid  an  opportunity  in  the  very  cen- 
ter of  the  town.  This  work  is  practicable  today,  but  it 
may  not  be  in  six  months  or  a  year  from  now.  Any  day  a  sky- 
scraper may  begin  to  rise  on  one  of  these  plots,  and  then 
Detroit's  opportunity  will  be  forever  lost.  You  have  a 
chance — a  rare,  great  chance — and  I  beg  that  you  will 
grasp  it,  in  appreciation  of  what  your  decision  will  mean 
to  the  future  of  the  city. 

I  have  presented  the  opportunity  in  its  simplest  form 
because  I  want  you  to  see  how  clear  the  present  duty  is. 
If  the  work  were  to  be  done  in  almost  any  city  of  Europe, 


the  municipality  would  purchase  much  more  land  than 
that  directly  required  for  the  improvement:  first,  that 
it  might  have  appropriate  sites  for  other  public  buildings ; 
second,  that  it  might  control  the  private  buildings  which 
would  face  on  the  new  plaza ;  and  third,  that  it  might  re- 
coup itself  for  some  of  the  original  expenditure  by  the 
sale  of  building  lots  at  the  advanced  value  which  should 
result  from  the  development.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to 
go  into  the  matter  in  detail.  You  are  the  best  judges 
whether  such  a  plan  would  be  at  all  feasible  in  Detroit, 
whether  there  would  be  the  requisite  public  confidence  in 
the  integrity  and  business  acumen  of  the  administration ; 
whether  it  could  be  better  managed  by  an  officially  ap- 
pointed commission  of  representative  citizens ;  or  whether 
it  will  be  best  to  follow  the  commoner  American  method 
of  adopting  the  direct  and  simplest  course  and  buying  for 
the  municipality  only  what  the  municipality  will  immedi- 
ately use.  My  plea  now  is  simply  that  the  work  be  under- 
taken— the  work  that  would  give  to  your  Board  a  place 
in  local  history  beside  "the  Governor  and  Judges." 

So  much  for  the  correction  of  the  most  prominent  of 
the  mistakes  that  have  arisen  from  disregard  of  the  spirit 
of  Detroit's  historic  plan.  There  remain  some  considera- 
tions concerning  its  adaptation  to  modern  conditions. 

Interior  Boulevards 

Washington  Avenue,  a  street  of  the  splendid  width 
of  two  hundred  feet  and  parked  down  the  center,  stops 
abruptly  within  a  block  of  Lafayette  Avenue,  which  you 
have  now  added  to  the  boulevard  system.  By  extending 
it  the  one  block  and  giving  it  a  slight  curve,  that  would 
not  be  inappropriate  in  a  parked  street  of  such  width,  you 
can  connect  it  with  the  boulevard,  you  can  offer  it  the  fine 
terminus  of  the  Federal  Building  and  tower,  and  you  can 

53 


open  the  Federal  Building  on  that  side.  It  would  seem 
that  the  advantages  were  sufficiently  numerous  and  im- 
portant to  make  this  worth  while.  It  may  be  said,  of 
course,  that  the  fine  and  beautiful  thing  to  do  would  be 
to  extend  Washington  Avenue  at  its  full  width  to  the 
river,  where  it  would  come  out  just  at  the  depots ;  but, 
with  the  other  more  pressing  expenditures,  I  have  feared 
that  this  would  not  seem  practicable. 

With  the  great  length  of  Grand  River  Avenue  and 
the  rapid  increase  of  population,  the  matter  of  an  ade- 
quate outlet  for  its  growing  traffic  has  become  pressing. 
The  question  is  one  of  municipal  convenience  more  than 
of  civic  aesthetics.  At  the  point  where  Grand  River 
narrows  from  100  to  60  feet,  Cass  Avenue  loses  also  24 
feet  of  its  width,  and  the  point  is  where  the  heavy  travel 
of  these  long  and  busy  streets  converges.  With  the  city's 
growth  congestion  here  must  become  steadily  more  seri- 
ous unless  relief  is  offered,  and  the  cost  of  relief  must 
constantly  increase.  I  think  the  best  plan  now  is  to 
widen  Grand  River  Avenue  on  its  south  side  to  its  inter- 
section with  Washington  Avenue.  This  is  broad  enough 
to  facilitate  the  distribution  of  the  traffic.  An  ampler 
plan,  but  one  involving  more  expense,  would  be  to  widen 
Grand  River  as  suggested  and  continue  it  to  Capitol  Park ; 
but  I  believe  that  the  advantage  over  the  Washington 
Avenue  terminus,  with  its  proffer  of  two  thoroughfares 
to  Woodward  Avenue,  would  not  be  great  enough  to  com- 
mend the  added  cost. 

On  the  other  side  of  Grand  Circus  Park  there  is  an 
opportunity  for  a  noble  bit  of  municipal  planning  by  the 
extension,  at  its  full  width,  of  Madison  Avenue  east  to 
Raynor  Street,  intersecting  Gratiot  Avenue,  and  opening 
Clinton  Park.  This  improvement  would  be  most  con- 
spicuously aesthetic. 

54 


Other  street  changes  could  be  suggested,  for  I  think 
the  great  lesson  which  Detroit  has  to  learn,  as  regards 
topography,  is  that  it  is  the  duty  of  a  street  to  lead  to 
something;  that  its  function  is  not  alone  to  collect  and 
carry  traffic ;  it  is  quite  as  much  to  disperse  it.  But  I 
have  pointed  out  as  many  changes  as  are  likely  to  prove 
"practicable"  in  this  portion  of  the  city ;  and,  while  retain- 
ing its  original  distinctive  character,  they  are  the  changes 
that  will  do  most  to  increase  the  efficiency  and  effective- 
ness of  its  highways  and  to  add  to  the  beauty  and  con- 
venience of  the  business  section.  If  you  do  these  things 
and  nothing  more,  you  will  have  done  much  to  give  to 
Detroit  that  air  of  spaciousness  and  scientific  planning 
which  is  the  charm  of  the  beautiful  modern  city. 

But  there  is  one  more  need  to  which,  fortunately,  the 
people  of  Detroit  are  awakened,  that  is  essential  to  their 
own  fuller  enjoyment,  to  the  good  impression  that  the 
city  should  make  upon  strangers,  and  to  an  appearance  of 
public  spirit  and  wise  planning.  This  is  the  reclaiming 
and  betterment  of  a  part  of  the  water  front.  The  thing 
of  which  you  all  are  proudest  is  your  noble  river,  and  it 
is  the  thing  which  the  city  seems  to  treat  most  con- 
temptuously. 

The  Water  Front 

If  a  map  of  the  city  were  held  at  a  little  distance  and 
a  stranger  were  asked  to  indicate  the  portion  of  the 
water  front  which  he  thought  should  be  reclaimed,  he 
would  point  to  that  part  nearest  to  the  center  of  the  city 
and  toward  which  the  great  streets  converge.  If  now 
the  map  were  brought  a  little  nearer,  and  he  was  shown 
that  the  railroads  and  large  manufactories  occupied  the 
river  front  from  Brush  Street  almost  to  Belle  Isle  bridge, 
and  from  Third  Street  as  far  in  the  opposite  direction,  he 

55 


would  reiterate  his  former  judgment  and  would  congratu- 
late you  on  the  good  luck  which  exempts  from  the  rail- 
road's steel  grip  the  very  portion  most  to  be  desired. 
Suppose  now  the  map  were  brought  so  near  that  he  could 
study  it,  and  he  should  see  a  splendid  avenue,  120  feet 
wide,  and  the  backbone  of  the  city,  brought  in  a  straight 
line  to  the  river  at  about  the  center  of  the  plot  he  had  in- 
dicated; suppose  he  were  told  that  a  little  portion  of  the 
land  on  one  side  of  the  avenue  and  within  the  chosen 
strip  were  already  public  property,  where  a  tiny  bit  of 
green  sward  accessible  by  an  alley  was  pathetically  called 
a  "park,"  and  that  on  the  other  side,  but  still  within  the 
narrow  strip,  there  was  another  bit  of  green  sward  which 
private  enterprise  had  secured,  would  not  his  judgment 
be  emphatically  confirmed?  It  is  really  a  remarkable 
combination  of  circumstances  that  have  conspired  to 
make  available  for  public  water  front  improvement  the 
little  space  between  Third  and  Brush  Streets.  Whatever 
may  be  thought  of  the  advisability  or  possibility  of  con- 
tinuing the  work  up  or  down  the  river,  there  can  be  no 
two  opinions  as  to  where  you  should  begin.  To  secure 
this  all  parties  should  concentrate. 

For  my  own  part,  I  shall  not  recommend  a  thought 
of  extending  the  work  in  a  continuous  form,  for  some 
years  at  least,  beyond  the  limits  indicated.  The  dirt  and 
noise  of  railroads  and  factories  would  make  unpleasant 
the  land  side  of  the  suggested  promenade,  even  if  it  were 
practicable;  and  if  once  you  get  the  ten  blocks  or  so  of 
river  bank  in  the  center  of  the  city  and  make  all  you 
might  of  that,  you  will  find  it  accommodating  a  multitude 
of  people,  while  there  will  be  many  other  ways,  of  which 
much  has  been  already  pointed  out,  in  which  the  public 
moneys  can  be  more  effectively  expended.  But  if  not 
recommending  further  continuous  construction  at  just 
this  time,  I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  advising  neg- 

56 


lect  of  the  water  front  beyond  the  chosen  strip.  I  shall 
indicate  in  the  termini  of  the  boulevard  some  specific 
points  at  which  special  improvement  can  be  made,  and  I 
would  urge  the  utmost  vigilance  to  grasp  any  opportu- 
nity that  may  arise  for  a  pleasant  public  space  on  the 
shore.  It  would  be  well  to  have  a  society  making  this 
its  particular  care.  And  I  would  urge  that  as  far  as  pos- 
sible every  street  which  comes  down  to  the  water's  edge 
should  be  suitably  finished  as  a  municipal  vantage  point, 
whence  any  one  may  watch,  with  safety  and  enjoyment, 
the  wonderful  panorama  of  the  river  traffic.  If  you  im- 
prove the  street  ends  and  the  ten  blocks  in  the  center  of 
the  city,  you  will  have  restored  the  river  to  the  people, 
and  then  the  city  will  not  seem  to  have  turned  its  back 
to  the  stream,  but  to  be  facing  it. 

A  word  now  about  the  character  of  the  improvement 
between  Brush  and  Third  Streets.  It  ought  to  be  sub- 
stantial in  appearance  and  to  be  given  its  main  and 
strong  emphasis  at  Woodward  Avenue.  There  has  been 
some  talk  about  the  Antwerp  promenade  offering  a  good 
model  for  Detroit,  and  in  certain  particulars  its  hints  are 
of  value ;  but  the  Antwerp  promenade  is  distinctly  disap- 
pointing in  its  lightness  of  construction.  Any  seeming 
flimsiness  on  the  shore  line  is  out-of-place,  for  its  appar- 
ent purpose  is  to  arrest  the  mighty  tide.  If  you  make  it 
orderly,  strong,  imposing,  as  Paris,  London,  Rome  and 
smaller  Italian  cities  do,  you  at  once  dignify  the  aspect 
of  the  city,  and  magnify  the  power  of  the  stream.  More- 
over, in  Detroit  very  large  and  strong  steamers  will  tie 
up  before  this  water  front  improvement.  If  they  were 
to  be  the  small  pleasure  craft  of  an  ordinary  river,  there 
would  be  less  incongruousness  in  setting  them  beside  a 
lightly  built  esplanade;  but  you  do  not  want  it  to  look 
as  if  with  a  single  sigh  from  their  great  stacks  and  a 
single  restless  turn  of  their  propellers  they  would  pull 

57 


the  whole  construction  into  the  river!  Whatever  you 
do,  make  the  improvement  look  worthy  of  the  meeting 
place  of  a  great  city  and  a  great  river  and  make  it  seem 
strong  enough  to  hold  the  largest  vessels  that  may  tie 
there.  For  these  reasons  I  do  not  favor  the  "Board 
Walk"  idea,  nor  even  the  likeness  of  the  Atlantic  City 
walk  which  is  a  board  floor  on  a  light  steel  frame.  By 
all  means  have  the  light  steel  frame,  but  give  it  a  con- 
crete floor  and  give  to  it — at  least  in  the  seeming — piers 
of  masonry  or  of  concrete  made  to  look  like  stone.  And 
have  no  gas  pipe  railing  along  its  edge ;  but  an  orna- 
mental and  substantial  one — unless  you  will  build  a  para- 
pet— and  punctuate  it  at  near  intervals  with  stout  light 
standards  alternating  with  masts  for  flags. 

Begin  the  work  at  Woodward  Avenue,  treating  that 
as  a  water-gate — the  official  entrance  to  the  city.  And 
it  should  be  that,  the  place  where  distinguished  guests  are 
received.  There  never  was  a  spot  more  clearly  and  splen- 
didly marked  for  the  purpose  than  this  broad  avenue  lead- 
ing straight  up  to  the  public  buildings.  The  terminus  of 
the  street  already  belongs  to  the  city,  so  that  you  can  do 
what  you  like  with  it.  There  is  a  good  illustration  in 
Bordeaux's  harbor  treatment;  but  I  would  like  to  see  it 
modified  a  little  for  your  case.  I  would  suggest  twin 
towers,  connected  very  high  up  (so  as  not  to  break  the 
fine  vista  of  the  street)  by  a  graceful  span  of  steel,  making 
a  lofty  promenade.  Beads  of  light,  outlining  the  arch  on 
the  landward  side,  would  take  the  place  of  the  string  that 
now  flutters  across  the  avenue,  in  very  weak  recognition 
of  the  civic  import  of  the  spot.  On  the  river  side  the 
arch  itself  would  be  lost  in  darkness  at  night,  but  lights 
would  blaze  from  the  summit  of  the  towers.  Supple- 
mentary to  the  towers,  and  carrying  the  scheme  into  the 
city,  I  think  there  would  be  wanted  standards  at  the  top 
of  the  gentle  ascent,  where  Jefferson  Avenue  crosses 

58 


Woodward.  On  the  other  sides  of  the  towers,  away 
from  the  street,  where  the  ferry  piers  for  Windsor  and 
Belle  Isle  are  now,  architectural  bays  would  support  a 
broad  esplanade  without  necessary  detriment,  and  even 
with  advantage,  to  the  present  business.  From  these 
points  the  promenade,  steel  frame  on  seeming  piers  of 
stone  and  grown  somewhat  narrower  (unless  you  found 
it  feasible  to  adopt  the  plan  of  Algiers  in  which  ware- 
house and  promenade  are  combined)  could  stretch  away, 
coming  down  to  the  level  of  the  ground  by  a  broad  flight 
of  steps  where  the  municipal  lighting  plant  and  the  re- 
served space  at  the  Wayne  Hotel  give  opportunities  for 
little  parks.  The  whole  cost  of  this  improvement  would 
be  small  indeed  considering  the  pleasure  it  would  give  to 
the  people  and  the  betterment  of  the  aspect  of  the  city; 
and  it  is  a  well  conceived  idea  that  at  the  lighting  plant  a 
public  bath  and  wash  house,  making  use  of  the  exhaust 
steam,  could  be  inconspicuously  added  to  the  scheme. 

The  most  distinctive  features  of  Detroit,  the  river 
front  and  Campus  Martius,  have  been  now  considered — 
the  features  upon  which  the  special  emphasis  is  to  be  put 
in  developing  its  civic  possibilities.  There  remain  a  group 
of  undertakings  that  concern  the  convenience,  comfort  and 
pleasure  of  the  residents  of  the  city  more  particularly  than 
its  guests — that  may  count  much  with  the  citizens,  but 
not  greatly  with  the  general  impression  which  Detroit 
would  make  upon  strangers.  These  include  the  problems 
connected  with  the  parks  and  boulevards  and  the  general 
care  of  the  city. 

A  New  Bell  Isle  Bridge 

Beginning  with  Belle  Isle,  a  unique  and  splendid 
pleasure  ground,  the  horrible  bridge  that  connects  it  with 
the  mainland  is  too  much  of  a  calamity  to  make  possible 

59 


a  restriction  of  its  effect  to  the  citizens  alone.  Nobly 
dedicating  the  great  reserve  to  public  enjoyment,  you 
have  made  its  approach  the  semblance  of  a  railroad  bridge 
of  the  ugliest  type.  A  new  bridge  here  cannot  be  long 
delayed,  and  when  it  comes  it  should  be  made  monu- 
mental and  beautiful,  of  full  boulevard  width,  and  in  ap- 
pearance as  well  as  in  fact  a  part  of  the  boulevard.  On 
the  island  itself,  the  sheds  at  the  lower  end  should  give 
way — as  doubtless  they  soon  will — to  something  worth- 
ier. Detroit  has  outgrown  that  first  phase  of  civic  art 
when  fine  things  are  done  in  a  shamefaced,  makeshift 
way,  and  there  is  no  need  now  of  a  professional  advice 
to  correct  the  error. 

Having  toured  the  island  on  a  November  morning, 
I  shall  make  no  attempt  to  discuss  its  interior  develop- 
ment beyond  remarking  that  here,  as  also  in  Water 
Works  Park,  the  canal  borders  should  have  better  plant- 
ing. In  a  natural  park  especially,  these  canals,  an  ex- 
cellent feature,  ought  to  have  the  semblance  of  placid 
streams  with  the  hard  lines  of  their  edges  broken  by  vege- 
tation. The  willows  give  a  beautiful  start  in  securing 
this  effect. 

At  the  upper  end  of  the  island,  but  with  great  cir- 
cumspection in  the  accompanying  planning  lest  the  wild 
beauty  of  the  natural  forest  be  broken,  I  would  have  a 
bridge — distinctly  secondary  in  importance  to  the  main 
approach — thrown  over  to  the  Water  Works  Park.  This 
will  create  a  circular  drive — always  a  desirable  feature 
in  park  development,  since  it  makes  possible  a  return  by 
another  route  than  that  which  was  used  in  coming — and 
will  bring  Water  Works  Park  into  the  park  system. 
Further  to  do  this,  to  complete  the  circle  and  incidentally 
recognizing  the  city's  growth,  I  would  recommend  that 
Cadillac  Avenue  be  included  in  the  boulevard  system  as 
far  as  Kercheval  Avenue.  It  leads  with  absolute  direct- 

60 


ness  from  Water  Works  Park,  is  the  broadest  of  the 
north  and  south  streets  near  it,  and  the  Water  Works 
Tower  closes  its  vista  very  picturesquely  as  one  ap- 
proaches the  park.  Reaching  Kercheval  Avenue  and 
turning  towards  the  city,  I  would  include  that  in  the 
boulevard  system  until  the  woods  on  the  right  hand  side 
are  reached.  They  comprise  a  fine  growth  of  large  tim- 
ber, covering  a  parallelogram  strangely  matching  in  size 
and  situation  Clark  Park  on  the  other  side  of  the  city. 
I  think  a  very  strong  effort  should  be  made,  while  these 
trees  are  still  standing,  to  add  the  tract  to  the  park  sys- 
tem. If  this  can  be  done,  the  new  boulevard  can  then 
lose  itself  with  pleasant  variation  in  a  park  drive  through 
the  woods,  emerging  at  their  further  end  to  connect  di- 
rectly with  the  present  boulevard.  I  hope  this  will  cer- 
tainly be  brought  about;  but  should  efforts  to  obtain  the 
woodland  fail,  the  route  could  continue  along  Kercheval 
Avenue  to  the  boulevard.  The  alternative  is  distinctly 
less  desirable,  but  there  is  no  other  better  route,  and 
while  there  are  already  car  tracks  on  Kercheval  Avenue, 
the  distance  is  not  great.  The  track  can  be  put  at  the  side 
of  the  road,  more  or  less  planted  out,  and  turf  between  the 
rails  will  lessen  dust  and  noise  as  has  been  successfully 
done  on  Beacon  Boulevard,  for  instance,  in  Boston.  The 
completion  of  this  new  boulevard  circle  would  prove,  I 
believe,  a  very  desirable  and  popular  addition  to  your 
system. 

The  Boulevard 

Taking  up  now  the  existing  boulevard,  with  a  word 
of  praise  for  the  courage  and  foresight  that  dared  to  estab- 
lish and  develop  it,  we  may  begin  at  the  Belle  Isle  bridge. 

There  seems  to  be  a  chance,  on  both  sides  here,  for 
the  city  to  obtain  water  frontage ;  and  it  ought  to  do  so, 

61 


if  for  no  other  reason  than  to  hold  off  at  arm's  length 
such  industrial  plants  as  the  neighboring  Detroit  Stove 
Works,  which,  whatever  are  their  merits,  are  not  ap- 
propriate boulevard  ornaments.  At  the  crossing  of 
Gratiot  Avenue  the  boulevard  takes  a  jog  which  is  un- 
necessarily bad.  By  a  very  little  care  in  replanning  it 
can  be  given  a  graceful  curve.  Again,  the  subsequent 
turn,  as  in  the  case  of  its  almost  every  turn,  is  sharper 
than  desirable.  At  McDougall  Avenue  I  think  the  boule- 
vard should  take  a  double  turn,  going  not  only  to  the 
right  but  also  to  the  left,  boulevarding  McDougal  the 
short  two  blocks  to  Ferry,  whence  a  pleasant  drive  would 
be  offered  into  the  very  center  of  the  residence  district. 
Continuing  on  the  established  boulevard,  there  are 
reached,  after  the  third  turn,  the  railroad  crossings.  I 
note  that  the  boulevard  is  being  carried,  very  properly, 
over  one  of  the  sets  of  tracks  and  I  hope  the  plan  is,  as  it 
should  be,  to  continue  it  on  a  viaduct  until  both  series  of 
tracks  are  passed.  This  would  add  very  little  to  the  ex- 
pense, would  be  much  pleasanter  than,  having  risen  over 
one  set  of  tracks,  to  fall  abruptly  to  the  level  and  then  to 
rise  over  the  next,  and  it  would  tend  to  conceal  from  this 
park  road  the  manufacturing  plants  that  are  gathered 
here.  I  think,  too,  that  by  virtue  of  the  latter's  position 
at  the  side  of  the  boulevard,  ampolopsis  might  be  planted 
against  their  walls. 

Of  the  rest  of  the  boulevard  it  is  hardly  necessary  to 
speak  with  the  same  detail,  the  problem  being  generally 
similar  throughout,  but  in  making  the  circuit  it  occurred 
to  me  that  there  were  long  stretches  where  a  bridle  path 
might  so  pleasantly  be  included  that  I  wondered  it  had 
not  been  demanded.  A  bridle  path,  it  may  be  added,  is 
almost  as  unfailing  a  source  of  enjoyment  to  those  who 
watch  the  riding  as  to  those  who  ride.  At  the  western 
end  of  the  boulevard,  the  lack  of  a  terminus  is  notable 

62 


and  striking.  Having  come  twelve  miles  around  this 
noble  drive,  with  the  river  in  sight  again,  it  fritters  into 
nothing.  It  should  be  carried  over  the  tracks  and 
brought  to  the  water's  edge,  and  here,  at  the  elevation 
gained  in  crossing  the  railroad,  a  turn  should  be  made 
whence  the  panorama  of  the  river  may  be  seen.  There 
is  a  good  chance  here  for  a  necessary  bit  of  water  front 
improvement. 

In  the  boulevarding  of  Lafayette  Avenue,  an  oppor- 
tunity is  offered  to  bring  Clark  Park  into  the  system,  in- 
stead of  permitting  its  continued  isolation  as  if  a  giant 
dray  bringing  some  of  the  country  into  town  had  dropped 
this  off  the  back.  Lafayette  Boulevard  should  not  stop  ab- 
ruptly at  the  playground;  but  even  at  the  risk  of  losing 
some  playground  space — or  at  the  cost  of  its  redistribu- 
tion— the  road  should  be  brought  gracefully  around  to 
lose  itself  in  the  devious  ways  of  the  park. 

So,  with  a  report  already  much  longer  than  I  had  in- 
tended, we  come  to  some  general  considerations,  affect- 
ing the  city  as  a  whole. 

You  have  fine  trees,  but  they  ought  to  be  taken  care 
of,  and  I  would  earnestly  recommend  that  the  street 
trees  be  put  in  charge  of  the  Commissioner  of  Parks  and 
Boulevards,  or  that  the  office  of  city  forester  be  created. 
Better  results  are  obtained,  as  a  rule,  in  having  a  separate 
officer  who  has  made  a  special  study  of  street  trees,  who 
is  an  expert  in  their  care,  and  who  alone  is  responsible 
for  them,  than  in  putting  them  in  charge  of  a  Park  Board 

You  have  also  an  exceptionally  good  system  of  alleys, 
speaking  topographically;  but  they  are  badly  treated. 
The  alleys  ought  to  be  paved,  preferably  with  asphalt, 
throughout  the  business  section,  because  it  is  easiest 
to  keep  clean.  Cobblestones  are  properly  considered  now 
a  relic  of  urban  barbarism — in  Baltimore  the  laying  of 
them  is  treated  legally  as  a  crime.  And  whether  the  al- 

63 


leys  are  paved  or  not,  an  ordinance  should  require  that 
all  rubbish  and  ashes  be  put  into  receptacles  which  will 
be  emptied  by  the  city  as  certainly  as  the  garbage  is  so 
collected.  You  cannot  have  clean  streets  while  you  have 
dirty  alleys ;  and  ill-paved  alleys  mock  well-paved  streets. 
The  trolleys  are  necessarily  a  very  important  feature 
of  modern  city  life.  They  seem  to  be  exceptionally  so  in 
Detroit,  and  local  conditions  having  fastened  upon  you 
the  overhead  system  for  an  indefinite  future,  you  should 
see  that  it  serves  as  far  as  possible  the  ends  of  civic 
beauty.  In  the  business  district  at  least — certainly  on 
Woodward  Avenue  between  the  Water  Gate  and  the 
Grand  Circus  Park  and  on  the  re-made  Campus  Martius 
and  Cadillac  Square — you  may  properly  demand  some  art 
and  beauty  in  the  trolley  poles.  These  are  conspicuous 
street  fixtures  which  in  Europe  are  made  frankly  orna- 
mental ;  and  I  am  glad  to  say  that  the  movement  has  now 
reached  America.  Photographs  of  castings  for  a  really 
ornamental  base  and  cap  to  a  trolley  pole  have  lately 
been  sent  to  me  by  the  Phoenix  Iron  Works  Corporation, 
of  Hartford,  Conn.,  and  it  is  surprising  how  cheaply  these 
can  be  added  to  the  poles  and  with  what  good  effect.  The 
matter  is  well  worth  your  looking  into.  It  is  a  chance  to 
make  a  distinct  improvement  in  the  appearance  of  your 
streets  without  expense  to  the  city. 

Small  Parks 

One  other  general  matter  to  which  I  would  call  your 
attention  is  Detroit's  paucity  of  small  parks,  when  the 
topography  of  the  city  lends  itself  singularly  well  to  their 
development  at  street  intersections.  Here  they  will  be- 
come part  of  the  street  system  and  can  occupy  ground 
which,  owing  to  the  narrowness  of  the  lot  or  its  tapering 
character,  is  good  for  so  little  else  that  it  must  be  always 

64 


an  eyesore  until  it  is  thus  developed.  The  plan  of  De- 
troit, with  very  good  reason,  suggests  that  of  Washing- 
ton, and  you  all  know  how  important  a  feature  of  that 
city's  beauty  is  the  number  of  its  ornamental  circles,  tri- 
angles and  squares.  Of  course,  you  cannot  put  these 
all  over  the  town  at  once,  but  I  would  suggest  that  De- 
troit adopt  the  general  plan  of  New  York  City — so  much 
less  happily  placed  in  this  respect — where  a  certain  sum 
is  set  aside  for  expenditure  each  year  in  securing  open 
spaces.  In  Philadelphia  a  strong  association  of  private 
citizens — the  City  Parks  Association — has  interested  it- 
self in  the  matter.  The  streets  are  laid  out  on  the  grid- 
iron plan  so  that  there  any  park  reservation  usually  means 
loss  of  good  building  land,  as  it  would  not  mean  here. 
Yet  the  1904  report  shows  that  in  the  sixteen  years  of  the 
Association's  life,  twenty  new  open  spaces  have  been 
actually  secured  and  improved,  that  five  more  are  now 
being  improved,  and  that  nineteen  others  have  been  al- 
ready plotted  or  given,  but  have  not  yet  been  developed. 
This  is  a  total  of  forty-four  new  open  spaces,  against  a 
total  of  twelve  secured  in  all  the  long  previous  life  of  the 
city.  And  a  surprising  and  encouraging  feature  of  the 
movement  is  the  number  of  spaces  that  have  been  pre- 
sented to  the  city.  In  the  suburban  plotting,  outside  the 
present  Detroit  city  limits,  there  should  be  no  need  of 
such  an  opportunist  policy,  but  the  parks  should  be  ar- 
ranged for  in  the  street  planning. 

Conclusion 

As  I  look  back  over  the  recommendations  of  this 
report,  it  seems  as  if  I  had  given  too  many  suggestions, 
as  if  I  had  so  scattered  the  emphasis  as  to  dissipate  it  and 
leave  no  clear  conception  of  precisely  what  to  do.  But 
it  was  your  wish  that  I  should  cover  the  whole  city,  and 

65 


in  a  place  the  size  of  Detroit  you  cannot  concentrate  upon 
any  one  thing  with  a  hope  of  making  the  city  beautiful. 
You  must  seize  this  opportunity  and  that  opportunity; 
there  must  be  a  change  here  and  a  development  there; 
there  must  be  a  dwelling  upon  specific  details  in  one 
part  of  the  city  and  in  another.  But  when  all  is  done, 
the  City  Beautiful  will  emerge — the  city  made  conven- 
ient, stately,  dignified,  obviously  conscious  of  its  oppor- 
tunities, sure  of  its  future,  its  every  advantage  grasped. 

And  after  all,  the  recommendations  once  grouped, 
are  not  so  many  as  to  confuse  nor  is  their  total  imprac- 
ticable. There  is  the  suggestion  of  a  sub-committee  to 
handle  the  matter  of  the  street  jogs;  there  are  certain 
definite  pieces  of  real  estate  to  be  acquired ;  there  is  to  be 
an  extension  of  the  city  boundaries  or  the  adoption  of  a 
metropolitan  map ;  there  is  to  be  advocated  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  commission  of  experts  to  deal  with  the  Campus 
Martius  and  Cadillac  Square  problem ;  there  is  to  be  the 
water  front  improvement;  there  are  the  park  and  boule- 
vard recommendations,  to  be  considered  by  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Parks  and  Boulevards;  there  is  the  suggestion 
that  a  City  Forester  be  asked  for,  that  the  alleys  have  bet- 
ter care,  that  an  improved  trolley  pole  be  obtained  in  the 
show  parts  of  the  city,  and  that  there  be  begun  an  effort 
to  secure  more  small  parks  at  street  intersections.  De- 
troit is  fortunate  among  American  municipalities  in  hav- 
ing already  secured  a  good  and  abundant  water  supply, 
good  sewage  and  good  light.  It  may  now  reasonably 
turn  to  the  amenities  of  life,  and  with  the  courage,  faith, 
public  spirit  and  broad  view  that  has  made  the  city  what 
it  already  is,  it  may  take  up  the  task  of  making  itself  more 
beautiful  and  the  life  in  it  pleasanter,  and  of  grasping  the 
heritages  that  are  rightfully  its  people's. 

In  closing  the  report  I  have  only  one  more  word  to 
say.  It  is  to  express  my  appreciation  of  the  courtesies 

66 


of  the  Committee  and  of  the  ready  co-operation  of  every 
member.  You  made  a  task  that  must  in  any  case  have 
been  exceptionally  interesting — so  great  are  Detroit's  op- 
portunities— one  also  of  exceeding  personal  pleasure. 


RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 


CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


UCLA 

TFDMRDADV    1  J—  l  A 

,'  .'  n   IOA 

M  Ay  0  - 

m}  £8  1974 

LD  21-327n-3,'74                               General  Library 
(R7057slO)476  —  A-32                    University  of  California 
Berkeley 

